The one week and beyond no-spend thread!

[Ima saver]

Day 4, no spending except for dinner out, while I allow myself.

[Kris10Leigh]

It's day 6 for me and I am starting to want to spend money on things while I am home and have the time. I go back to work on Monday and would like to get the kid's hair cut, the car oil changed and buy some new shoes for my little first grader.

The hair cut could wait, but I'd like to do it now. My 4 year old cut his own hair. Yes, just in time for the first day of school. For him it is just preschool and his teachers already know him, so it's no big deal for him to go looking silly. I want it to grow out just a little bit so the hair dresser can do something about it. I'm debating on that one.

The shoes can wait. Normally I'd want my first grader to go to school with brand new shoes, but his current shoes aren't horrible yet. They will be in another month or so. I might as well wait.

As for the oil change, it can wait out the challenge. I just want to do it now while I have time to run some errands.

This is where the challenge gets hard for me.

[Ima saver]

You are doing great Kristen. I don't think I could handle 2 weeks like you are doing.

[PrincessPerky]

Kris great job skipping those things! those are the little things that can save so much mony to skip.

we killed our streak, bough childrens fever reducer for JC . (seems to be fine, just a fever and not all day fever either, for three days just a fever at nap time or when she wakes up, then some medicine and no repeat for the rest of the day..no clue what is up)

[boefixepa]

I'm doing well, been so busy it's not been hard. I did go out for dinner last night....but it was a date and so he paid. Then we went rock climbing...it's rather fun and not as hard as I thought.

[Ima saver]

I am on day 5, it has not been too hard at all! I do miss going to the grocery store, but I can't seem to get out of there without spending!

[DivaJen]

I haven't been not spending at all, but I have strung together 6 days of no frivolous spending! No coffees, no trinkets at the Hello Kitty store (I was there for my daughter but I love that place)...just groceries, bills, things of that nature. For me, that is pretty big!

[PrincessPerky]

Am I the only one rude enough to want to know what Boes date was like...less I missed something it is the first I heard of Boe haivng a date...did you bake for him? Is he nice? is he cute? can you tell I have no single friends to ooh and aww over men with?

[Bookie]

Boe's beau is Boe's biz. No pumping.


Today marks the end of the first week, and I've been thinking about how different this is from the original no-spend Challenge. What's missing is the sense of adventure. Boe's challenge came out of the blue with its "Let's start now." This was a more premeditated affair.

Because I knew it was coming, I did my shopping and made my preparations accordingly. I built in accommodations. This time round I budgeted for my Sunday papers and for a laundry day each week. (We're talking about $15 here total.) Next week I'll make my meetings and send the flowers I had budgeted for as well. So this is a Challenge on cruise control, informed by the experience of the last one and without the improvisation that enlivened the first Challenge.

Oddly, it's going to be much more lucrative as well. I started with $14 left over from the previous week, picked up $50 on Monday as my weekly allowance. Unexpectedly, I received $120 when a loan I'd written off was repaid. I end the first week with $170 destined for savings. Monday will bring me another $50 that should go untouched. So, barring the unforeseen, I will have $220 to bank on the 27th.

What I don't have are funny little revelations to share. I sort of miss that.

[Dido]

For me the challenge is different as well, but in a different (less lucrative) way than for Bookie. Yes, I'm more prepared this time for the basics--but I'm at a transition point in my year, as I finished taking summer school classes and gear up to prepare my own, and I'm finding that transition times seem to beget needs--things that I realize, as I shift mental gears, that I will need for the beginning of school--so I've had almost $60 of unplanned spending this week: $25 for a wedding gift for my department chair when the collection went around (that was the standard contribution), $10 for a film for the first week of school, $4 for a library fine (oops), and $20 for Slimfast when I realized that I'd put on 5 pounds and my school clothes are going to be awfully tight if I don't take them off quickly!

[Kris10Leigh]

Bookie, I could have written your post, though not quite as eloquently. I feel the same way. The week has flown by. Now I just have to make it five more days to Friday and I will have made it two weeks. It is about to get interesting for me though. I've posted in the recipe forum that I need help planning lunches. We're good on dinners enough to get us through a few more weeks, even, but I'm running out of lunches. If summer were to continue a few more weeks, I'd be good to go because I could just make hot lunches. But that's not the case! I have to start packing school lunches and packable stuff is running low! So the challenge is about to get interesting for me.

As for other expenses, they've all but stopped. I am going to get the boy's hair cut on Tuesday. My 6 year old starts his first day of first grade on Wednesday and his hair is starting to look ragged. I want him to make a good first impression. And my little guy...well...he tried to cut it himself, but alas, he's no Barber. It's grown a hair (pun intended) and I almost think it can now be fixed at least mostly. The boy cut about 5 spots all the way to the scalp. It's amazing he did not cut skin. Other than hair cuts, we're learning that we really don't need a darned thing.

[Ima saver]

Last night was the end of my one week challenge and I did it! Really finding out that I don't need to buy much of anything except food.

[Marcymox]

I agree with the poster that said that transition times always cost more money than you expect. This challenge is interesting- especially when you have kids- and the challenge starts on the week school starts.

You think you are organized- you have all the supplies bought, shoes, backpacks, followed supply lists to the letter and then the kids bring a note home that says " new this for 6th grade- we will be requiring ... " insert whatever in the line, PE clothes, towels, special markers, protractors. and more likely than not you end up having to run out and buy it soon. This challenge is especially difficult for things that you cannot reasonably ( sp) predict.
another example, I expected girl scouts to cost 1.00 per meeting in dues, just like it has been for the last SIX years, turns out the leader wants to do "something new" this year and collect all the dues at once.

anyway, I have been following everyone's challenge, and I'll watch these threads closely for a new challenge to appear- planned or unplanned, because I 'd really like to participate. - I'm guessing all of you will be up to doing this challenge again next month? I'd like to as well.

[Kris10Leigh]

Well, I did not make it two weeks. But I did make it ELEVEN days! That's pretty good!

I went ahead and bought school clothes for my boys. I said I wasn't going to, but then I realized that I was really just being cheap. My poor four year old wears hand-me-downs as it is and he is really hard on clothes. He only has maybe 2 t-shirts that aren't completely stained.

I went to the thrift store on 25% off day and spent $100! I looked at the receipt, and that $100 bought 50 shirts and pairs to outfit the boys and few for hubby as well. I got myself an orange turtle neck to wear for Halloween. I promise myself that purchase every year and every year I go without. Now we are set. My best purchase with a perfect condition Nautica Coat that will fit my 6 year in a few years. It was $7.50, which is high for a thrift store, but it was still a steal.

We had a busy evening and didn't end up getting dinner until 8:00, so we ended up eating out at a Chinese place. I used our budgeted grocery money to do that, so not bad.

Tomorrow the boys will be getting haircuts. We need an oil change. I owe $30 for my 1st graders fees. I owe $20 to every Tom, Dick and Harry at my school that wants social money from me. (I'm a bit bitter about that...I work in several schools and I have to pay dues at each of them).

I will be looking to re-enter the challenge in September with a vengence!

[Bookie]

The dam burst! The dam burst! Run for the hills.

Congrats on the eleven days. In your shoes I'd not have made it through a weekend. My hat is off to you.

And we will certainly go another round in September.

[Ima saver]

Anybody still doing this??

[Bookie]

Originally Posted by Ima saver

Anybody still doing this??

The Challenge ends for me today. As mentioned in last week's post, it has been less of an adventure simply because there were fewer surprises. On the upside the process has been much smoother precisely because I knew what I was about.

The savings worked out according to plan. I close this Challenge with $114 in unspent household funds. Add to that a $120 loan repayment that I had not expected to see, and I sent a friend an ING referral. He used it, which earned me another $10. Grand total for the Challenge is $244.40.

Mon. 8/14 - $14.40 - Cash on hand
Mon. 8/14 - $50.00 - Cash added
Thur. 8/17 - $120.00 - Loan repaid
Sun. 8/20 - $184.40- Cash on hand
Mon. 8/21 - $50.00 - Cash added
Tue. 8/22 - $10.00 - INGDirect referral
Sun. 8/27 - $244.40- Cash on hand

The original Challenge netted me 95.14, which I rounded up to $100, so my savings for the roughly 30 days of the two Challenges amounts to $344.40. That's cash money. The kind I can take to the bank. Household and gas accounted for $200. The rest was "found money" of one sort or another that didn't disappear into my spending stream.

[Ima saver]

Wow, you did great, bookie!!!!!!!

[Bookie]

Originally Posted by Ima saver

Wow, you did great, bookie!!!!!!!

Thanks Julie.

As I've said before, I have it really easy when it comes to the no-spend Challenges. I'm mostly retired, so I have no employment-related expenses. I live alone, so I don't have to compromise to keep peace in the house or to meet the needs of others. I have the time and energy to cook for myself, and I live within walking distance of everything that I really need. Piece of cake.

The people who impress me are the folks like Kristen, Boe, PrincessPerky, and all the others who juggle homes and families, jobs and school, and who still find ways to string together no-spend days. Now that's a challenge.


[And you too. ]