no money for a week...voluntarily???

[Kris10Leigh]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

The kids are killing me here! I wrote earlier that my little one popped his balloon and was crying for a new one. This morning my clever, frugal little four year old patched the hole with his finger and spent the next 10-15 minutes blowing up and deflating the balloon. The balloon finally gave up and popped beyond repair. I had tears all over again! Now, this afternoon, he gets to go to his first ever soccer practice. He is so excited that he wore a soccer uniform to bed and it was all we could do to get him to leave the cleats on the floor. This morning I noticed that the ball he is supposed to use is flat! Normally I'd just run out and buy a new one. But somehow I got roped into this crazy challenge with a bunch of people who decided it woud be fun to spend no money for a week! So I'm trying to find an air compressor! Found one! Too bad it's missing a part!

[34saving]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Kashi -- I don't know if you shop at Cub or not, but they take coupons 3 months expired by policy. Everyone -- I bet some stores around the nation do the same thing. It's probably worth asking about.

[veronak]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Day 3 and I am still not spending, how are you guys doing out there?

[Ima saver]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Kashi is going to have lots of dirty dishes!![Automated by GetSmile]

[Broken Arrow]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Poor Kris.

Monday. No spend. Mondays aren't too difficult though. I don't expect problems until towards the end of the week.

[Bookie]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Day Six: Broken Arrow comments that "Mondays aren't too difficult." I have the opposite experience.

Monday is my shopping day. I run my errands, hit the grocery store, pick up the odds and ends on my to-buy list, stop off at the bank and the library. I get out early and make a morning of it. What a difference the Challenge makes. I have no business to conduct at any of the places of commerce. I did walk down to the public library and the post office next door to mail my monthly bills.

I notice gas has gone up ten cents a gallon since last I fueled up. Do I get credit for the gas I'm not using during the Challenge?

Finished off the last of the fresh produce. (You pick out the little brown pieces of lettuce.) I am now reduced to 4 apples, 5 peaches and 2 plums -- plus potatoes. Tomorrow will see the last of my bread. And my eggs dwindle down to a precious few . . .

Well, I averaged $15.00 a week grocery spending for the first six months of the year, so I saved that much today.

Anybody keeping track of the number of participants? Boe?

[Dido]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Day 3 complete here. Fairly easy so far--the biggest temptation I've been fighting is an urge to run to the grocery store. One more popsicle left and tomorrow and Wed. we are supposed to have a heat index of 110! I found an empty ice cube tray and poured orange juice into it so those OJ cubes will have to take the place of popsicles. Other than that, I'd probably pick up a bit of fresh produce at the grocery, but the bit of arugla and tomatoes ripening in my garden and my carrot and celery sticks will have to do me for the week (along with my frozen veggie stock). Mostly I'm watching the food stores dwindle and find that that makes me a wee bit anxious.

Mostly I've avoided temptation by spending most of the time at home. I don't need to go to work until Wed.--once I'm out and about more and have to pack a lunch, things will become more challenging.

I've also noted here and there things I might want to buy...e.g. reading a thread on making one's own laundry detergent out of fels naptha soap and washing soda (somewhere on these forums) and putting those items on my "possibly to buy" list.

[jodi]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Day 5 complete. No money spent today. I stopped in to Walgreens to pick up one more item for the rebate (which I thought ended today), but then noticed the rebate ended 7/29. Instead of wandering around the store, I left without buying anything. Estimated savings: $5.
Total challenge savings: $38.50
DH broke the budget yesterday, though. He went to Binghamton on a moment's notice as his grandfather was hospitalized. After everything turned out to be fine, he decided to stay the night and ended up going to a minor league ballgame with his cousins. I don't begrudge him this at all - he doesn't see his family a lot, so I'm glad he went. But it did cost money...$20 in all for the game, dinner, and I'm sure a few beers were thrown in there too Plus he had to fill up the tank to get down there ($30).
Total money spent since the challenge started: $69.95 ($19.95 garage sales, $20 Dh, $30 gas) I think we might have been able to stretch the gas had DH not made this emergency trip - but oh well, you can't plan for emergencies! I'll console myself with the $40 we have saved in 5 days.

[getforfree]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

I usually spend $50/week on groceries. But the week before the challenge, I spent total of almost $90, because I spent $62 on ny Sunday trip to Biglots with the 20% coupon, so I really needed this challenge. Because I went $40 overboard with my budget the week before, so the first week of the challenge I am compensatin for it. That's why I need 2 weeks challenge to really save $$.

We are out of fresh fruit right now. But I am not buying any. We have lots of berries which I picked this Saturday. Kids don't like it any more, so I am making drink from it, so we won't run our of juice. I put about 3 cups of berries in blender add about half of cup of water and about quarter of cup of sugar. Blend it for about a minute and put this mixture in the 2 gall of hot almost boiling water. Then let it boil for about 3 minutes and turn it off. We were using about a gallon of juice a day, now we don't use any ,but I still have some hidden.

I am low on tomatoes and cucumbers. But the tomatoes in my garden started ripen, so we will be getting about 5 of them a day, so we should be fine. I planted tomatoes late this year, because the spring was really cold here.

The items I might run out and be tempted to buy (except for milk) are:

cucumbers
sugar
fruits(all gone already)
garlic
potatoes (all gone)
don't remember anything else right now

[getforfree]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Oh yea almost forgot:

Day 8 ---- no spending!!!!

[Kris10Leigh]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Eight days! That's terrific!

I am on day three and no spending here. In fact, I found $2.00 and put it in my change jar.

We borrowed the part we were missing to our air compressor and fixed our little guy's soccer ball. He was thrilled and forgot about the popped balloon.

All in all, things are going well. I got stressed out with our cell phone bill today, but it doesn't affect this challenge. I don't have to pay it within the week or anything. But it's supposed to be $110 but is $360 instead. That made me mad. There a couple reasons for the hike, but the biggest is simply because DH was out of town on business and had no choice but to use the phone and he went over on his minutes. (All business related outside of a few phone calls to say good-night to his boys every night). My issue is that it seems that just as I am feeling good about our successes, something like this is thrown in just to irritate to me.

Oh well! Onward and upward! I'mstill really proud of all we've accomplished so far.

[Bookie]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

You know, something I've been meaning to bring up is that the no-spend Challenge must be a very different thing for those of us who live alone and for the participants with resident families. It has to be harder when you have to cope with the needs of children and the expectations of a SO. The challenge is greater . . . but so is the accomplishment.

For me, a lot of the fun in the Challenge is really just watching myself react to things -- like Sunday without the paper or no errands to structure my Monday. I track my purchases every day, so I know what I'm spending. The Challenge has made me conscious of how often I think about buying things and the way that permeates my consciousness. I've never appreciated before how much was true.

[34saving]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Kris-- wanna take the challenge one step further? Call the cell phone company and explain they never told you would have to pay two months in advance. See if you can get some of those charges on the timeline where they should be.

[mud]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

I bet I can go the longest. 3 Months+ Army

[tgavin71]

Re: no money for a week...voluntarily???

Day 4. Balance is $4. Am getting a sense of power walking past all those lollies, cakes etc that scream out buy me! buy me! Not only is this challenge good for my wallet it is also good for my waist.