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!!

No Spend Month Update No. 2

We are a little more than half way through our No Spend Month Challenge and I am slowly learning that I am not really a BIG spender...but things really do "just come up" a whole lot more around here than I thought. So, as I am pondering how to wrangle that problem, take a look at how we are doing so far...


Total Money Spent Outside of Regular Budget $133.34 so far this month:

• $35.51 spent on fast food this past week!!!  WOW!  But really, I don't know how I could've reduced that number.  Most times it was because we were out and about and picked up lunch or for two of the trips we were renovating our friends' school room and went to get lunch?  The jury is still out on that one, but just so that you know, I am totally not okay with $35 in one week on nasty fast food!
• $12.00 SERVICE FEE on my checking account that I haven't had in years.  BRUTAL waste of money.  We transferred most of our money to savings this month and so it put our balance below the cut off I guess for no service fee.  I will be calling these folks!
• We had many random other spendings like $17.25 for bait fish to put in our pond because it is so hot here that our fish don't have the energy to really hunt for their food...we just wanted to make their lives a little easier!!
• Add all of these things to to the $54.70 I spent during the last update and we are at $133.34 so far!!  Bad yes, terrible, no! 

As far as my grocery budget goes, I think I am still on track to be where I need to be by the end of the month...unless that Blue Bell keeps going on sale.  I'm weak friends, very weak!!!  In case you missed my post about my new trial grocery budget, you can check it out here.  Here is how we are doing so far...

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)

I've got $25.00 left to spend on groceries this month.  It will require me to be more creative, but lets face it, I've got a freezer full of meat and vegetables and their is no reason I can't make this happen.  That $25.00 should only have to be spent on bread, milk, and a few other things to last us until the end of the month!

See you next week for my next update!!

July No Spend Month....Update No.1

Well, our no spend month is into its second week and this is much harder, and much more fun than I thought it would be.  So far we have spent more than I had hoped, but it has made me very aware of how things can and do creep up on us while we aren't looking and drain our checking accounts.  Here is where we stand after week one.

Total Money Spent Outside of Regular Budget $54.70

• McDonalds $3.23 (Brutal!!  Big Daddy went through the drive through before he knew this was a no spend month)
• Winn Dixie $45.57 (Brutal again!!! Big Daddy's turn to pick up groceries for work...they were BBQing for the 4th of July since they were working and he grabbed the groceries.)
• Raising Canes $5.86 (Yep, you guessed it...Big Daddy in the drive through again)

I guess its pretty clear who our problem is huh??  LOL!!  But, in his defense these were all spendings when nothing else would really have worked because of our schedule.  Big Daddy is a shift worker, and it is much cheaper for us to let him run through the drive through when he works nights and for me and the kids to eat leftovers than it is for me to cook a big meal for him to take a plate.

On the flip side, I changed up my grocery spending this month as well just to see...since we were getting all crazy and stuff in July!!!  Instead of doing my regular shopping which is Winn Dixie (coupons in tow) once a week and Sams once a month I decided to stick with that plan, but I bought way more at Sams than I usually do and allowed 50% of my entire month's grocery budget go in day one of the month.  We will see how that pans out, but I think it may work.  This will make sure that we have food all month long and will keep me from over buying at Winn Dixie.  Clear as mud??  Let me explain...

Here is our grocery budget (that as anyone who knows me knows, I rarely follow, read here for more).

Total grocery budget for one month $400.00

• $100.00 each week at Winn Dixie and/or Target (I HATE WALMART)
• Anything under the $100.00 I spend per week adds up as "extra" and I go to Sams at the beginning of the following month.
• However, in reality I go to Sams anyway regardless of the "extra" or lack of!

This month here is what I have tried with my $400.00 grocery budget

• $213.00 at Sams on July 5th
• $187.00 remaining in the grocery budget for the month of July
• So far all I have spent of that $187.00 is $4.00 for a gallon of milk.
• This should be plenty and we will have a freezer full of food to roll into next month...we shall see!

I will give my next update next Monday! I know that I had said Fridays in the beginning, but the next few Fridays are really hectic for me so Mondays will work better!!!  Hold me accountable my bloggy friends!!!

July is The No Spend Month

Have you seen anything about the The No Spend Month Challenge??  The idea came from Rachel at The Small Notebook as she has done this annually for the last 3 years.  The idea is that you will pay your bills and then just PINCH PENNIES so that you can see how much money you are really wasting each month.  Its just a break from spending.  Sounds interesting, huh?  Can our family do this??  We are surely going to try.

Our nation has become one of consumerism and it sickens me.  The belief that you can only be happy if you buy everything you want right when you want it has seemed to take over, even in our own home to a certain extent.  I find that my kids ask to go to Walmart more and more,  my free time is spent looking for something to buy, I stop for fast food way more than I should, and I just really don't keep an eye on where our money goes as well as I should.

Rachel lays things out so well in her post that I highly recommend you visiting her for all of the details, but for us, here is what we will be doing...

The plan:
The plan is that we really don't have one.  Im not the kind of person that can set a budget and "stick to it".  Not that I can't stick to a budget but it almost is like I am in bondage to the budget.  Clear as mud?  Well, let me just say it like this.  To say that I can only spend so much will make me constantly check the online banking, spend an entire day making some kind of whacked out spread sheet about how much we can spend each day on what and do some percentages and statistics and charts and graphs only to over spend on day one (on something out of my control) and blow the entire month and so I will quit.  Or, even better, I will go without milk for the next 26 days because I am trying to cut spending and we will eat hot dogs on bread and drink Kool Aid without sugar just because I am trying not to spend money.  Bottom line is that I am just not good with strict budgets and tend to do much better with the Big Daddy's budget which is, 

"Just try to spend as little as possible and what it is, is what it is.  

If you spend as little as possible, you will know that you couldn't have done any better."

Aaaah, much easier if you ask me.  And, I will spend less money that way and save myself from spreadsheet land and misery.  So while setting an amount for a goal may be what works for you, we will just be trying to cut spending everywhere we can.  We will see how that goes.

Not Included:
Not included in the fun will be our bills...ya know, we would like to live here at the end of July.  We will still pay all of our bills and I will still spend about $400 on groceries for the month, but I will be trying to cut spending in grocery land, as well as on our bills by figuring out if we can change plans or if the water company is interested in reducing our rates because we are such loyal customers....LOL!!!  Everything else though will be slim pickings!!!

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I will update you each Friday to tell you how we have done and to keep myself accountable and so that you can cheer me on.  If you plan to join The No Spend Month Challenge, leave it in a comment, I would love to check your progress as well.  


It should be fun, and since it is only July 5th, I will be including those first few days in July with my post on Friday...but for a teaser, we have spent less than $10.00 so far :)))


Wish me luck, I could very well be in an institution by July 31st!!!