A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

[tinapbeana]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

Fact is, I'm making a determined effort to use some of the odd items that showed up in my last pantry inventory. The jar of Alfredo sauce was one, the chocolate syrup was another. Still trying to figure out why I have two jars of mango chutney. I don't think of myself as a mango chutney sort of person. Could I have had delusions of curry?.

bookie, your posts are such a delight to read!! LOL.

i too have the ubiquitous jar of mango chutney. i'm envisioning glazed pork chops or chicken... yuuuuuummmm....

[Broken Arrow]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

You guys are making me hungry with all this talk of gourmet food....

I'm coming over!

[Ima saver]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

I had another no spend day yesterday. The week is almost up, right? I need some fresh bread. Dh takes lunch to work every day and the bread is pretty stale.

[Bookie]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

You guys are making me hungry with all this talk of gourmet food....

I'm coming over!

LOL Truth to tell, I'm probably the world's laziest cook, and one of the least inspired. My salvation is the cook-once, eat-several approach to meal planning. Efficient, easy, and cost-effective. A chicken from the bargain meat bin roasts in an hour. The meat freezes well and plays in salads (bagged), tacos, pasta dishes, even hash. The same's true for roast beast. Frozen vegetables microwave to perfection in seconds. Eggs are infinite in their variety; black beans and rice with cheese, sour cream and salsa; canned chili over chips and topped with bagged lettuce, shredded cheese and sour cream; potatoes can be baked, oven fried, mashed (and recycled into potato cakes). Nothing fancy, fussy or too strenuous.

LRJohnson suggested somewhere that simplicity was the key, and I concur. I keep the basics I enjoy on hand, and I watch for recipe ideas that assemble what I have in ways I've not considered. If it works, I add it to my bag of tricks. I even have a recipe folder I can scan for things I've not had for a while. It's been years since I bought a frozen entree, much less the modern equivalent of a TV dinner. It's not that much effort for me to eat cheaply and well.

[jodi]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

No spend day today. Stayed at home all morning and went to work all afternoon/early evening. I was invited to an Open House at a new group home, so dinner was free
I do really need to go grocery shopping - eggs, butter, flour - all the necessities of a self-sufficient kitchen seem to be lacking. I think the challenge is up tomorrow? I will either go tomorrow or Wednesday. I suppose every day I put it off is one more day until I need to go again...

[Broken Arrow]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

Well ladies and gentlemen, I've failed the challenge today. I'm not going to justify why I did it, but perhaps it's worth explaining what happened? After all, challenges come and go, but it's the insight that matters most, right? Insight that may help us understanding ourselves and our spending habits better?

Yes, it's true that I did spend some money to open up a new checking account today. I admit that, during that moment in time, I had completely forgotten my challenge. All I knew was that it was the right place at the right time to do this, but I was also against the clock to get it done. So, while that's technically "spending for myself", that's not what really done me in.

What really got me was that I woke up with the sniffles and a shooting pain in my neck that lasted all day. Not only that, but I also stayed over to work overtime. Now, while I would never pass up overtime, that also meant that I came home rather late.

All that added up to a guy who is more tired, hungry, sick, and sore than usual. Not a good combination. In the past, I would've done the wounded puppy thing and to get some affection from my ... now ex-wife. What can I say? I'm pathetic that way.

Unfortunately, she's not here anymore. It's just me and this big empty place.... There are times when I enjoy the quiet solitude. Today, however, was not one of those times. I really wanted some comfort food, and I didn't feel like doing any sort of cooking. More importantly, I really needed to be around people, even if I am eating by myself. If I ended up eating in my empty home... well, to be perfectly honest, I think it would've made me cry.

So, today was not a good day for me to be alone. Challenge or not, I had to be out... and that's what I did.

But, tomorrow is brand new day, and I'm hoping that things will turn out better. Despite today, I'll continue to uphold the challenge until at least my one week mark.

[Bookie]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

Broken Arrow, I'd say your day probably qualifies you for a time-out as far as the Challenge is concerned. Its' supposed to be an experiment in frugality, not an exercise in masochism.

Get some rest and hope you are feeling better in the morning.

[Bookie]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

Monday - Moving into the final stretch here with yet another day of no spending.

Things are getting tight hereabouts. Shortages have begun to appear. There was no cream cheese for my morning bagel! Only the timely application of peanut butter averted what could easily have become a crisis.

Went out early to make my Monday run to the bank for my weekly household allowance. This was more a matter of habit than of fiscal necessity. I have cash left over from last week. In fact, I still have money remaining from the week before that. It needs to go into savings, but there's just something so appealing about greenbacks. I like to sort it, count it, stack it in neat piles, run barefoot through it. The joy of money.

Certainly, it surpasses the joy of closets. Finished with closet number one, and I'm close to completing work on number two as well. My foyer is crowded with boxes and bags destined for Goodwill (I have a small foyer.), but that can wait until the rain stops. If the rain ever stops.

My earlier posting got me thinking about black beans and rice, so that's what I had for dinner. Very nice with shredded cheddar cheese, salsa, and the last of my sour cream. (It's been a bad day for dairy hereabouts.)

And so, blowing out my candle, I go frugally to bed.

[tinapbeana]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

So, today was not a good day for me to be alone. Challenge or not, I had to be out... and that's what I did.

BA, i'm sorry to hear you had a crap-tacular day. i hope you had as enjoyable an evening as possible.

feel good knowing that you bought dinner out when feeling down: many would have returned home with a 4 digit toy, a CC bill, and maybe a puppy. hey, a puppy might not be a bad idea...

[Ima saver]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

Well my challenge is over and I do need a few things at the store and I need to make a liquor run to North Carolina. I did not spend anything the past week, except the dinners out that I have allowed myself!

[Marcymox]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

well I'm pretty much out - I got a note home in the kids' back pack yesterday asking for $$10.00 for an "optional" school t-shirt they would like the kids to wear to field trips, and every wednesday for spirit day. Umm how is this optional?? anyway they want the money by friday.

I went to the petstore and redeemed some coupons I got in the mail for a free bag of dogfood. other than the gas to get there, spent nothing.

deadline for a bill was coming up and I had to mail it in, so there was more money spent. This challenge is hard with kids!! I mean you plan ahead so they have clothes, shoes, lunches, ect, it;s the unpredictable expenses. ARGH. and then Christmas is coming up soon, haven't even started shopping for that. I have the money, I just didn't want to spend it this week, I wanted to stick with the challenge.

I am happy to report though, that I didn't buy any halloween decorations, or any halloween candy, even though I was tempted. so I did reach a goal there. I haven't even put up any halloween deocrations- I'm an extremeist I guess, I don't want to put out the same old decorations as last year, so I'm not putting any up. - *pout* I think I might have to post a separate post about that!

[Broken Arrow]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

Thanks for the support, guys. I really do appreciate that.

Ok, so I'm back in the saddle today! No spend. No sniffles. No problems. The ache in the neck is still there, but the pain is subsiding. Work today had some kind of um... customer appreciation day? I don't know. All I know was that there was free BBQ for as far as the eye can see! Woohoo! So, I didn't even come home to cook tonight, since I was already stuffed. Did I mention that that was also some of the best BBQ I've ever had? It's almost like Emeril came out of the corner, look at it the BBQ, waved his hands over it and said, "BAM!" it was that good.

I also didn't work overtime today. None available, so I came home on a normal time, and just got out of a nice, long shower. Mmmmmm.

So yeah, I'm feelin' good!

[jodi]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

Ok, I'm officially out. My week is up and I've done my time Spent $67 at the grocery store today (bill before coupons and club savings was $125). I'll be following those of you who are still in...and that would be who?? BA?

[Broken Arrow]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

Yeah, I'll be in until Thursday, but I'm going to see if I can't stretch it out longer than that.

[Bookie]

Re: A No-Warning/No-Spend challenge!

[Snip] I'll be following those of you who are still in...and that would be who?? BA?

Ahem.

Tuesday - So here I come tearing across the finish line. Cash in hand, laurel-crowned, and reeking of peanut butter. (I really have to buy some cream cheese for those bagels.)

Seven sequential, breath-taking, debt-defying days on the high wire of fiscal abstinence. Yawn. :

Achievements to date:
1) Did a fair job of clearing out the refrigerator and making a dent in my overstocked larder.
2) Cleaned, decluttered, and rearranged two closets
3) Actually managed to toss or pack for donation a trunk load of surplus stuff
4) Managed to cull and shred one file drawer of financial packratting - c. 1998 - 2004

Did I mention not spending for a week?

Which brings me to the moment that warms the cockles of my money-grubbing little heart. Could I have the envelope please?

Let's see, I had $41 from the week before, $27 from last week and $50 for the current week, for a total of $118 plus change. The wages of parsimony are . . . cash.

And, if I continue the Challenge through Thursday, I can add the extra time I worked last week as well. Hmmmm.

*goes off the check the peanut butter level*