No spend 2020

[Heluvsme]

Also avoided the Dillard's sale! Winning! I found a cute crossbody at TJ Maxx, I walked around holding it for awhile thinking it would be great for our May trip to Disney, but ended up putting it back!
1/2 .... no spend
1/3 … no spend
1/4 ….regular grocery shopping, gas
1/5 … lunch out with the family (planned and budgeted for!)

 

[kbelle8995]

Days of no spending I am going to try that more often.

 

[Deffenm]

This challenge will help me with my financial goals for the year. I have the majority of my budget set for the year for those things I know we NEED to buy. I just need to curb the non NEED buys. In order to keep my grocery bill down I go to several stores so grocery shopping usually takes me 2 days. Tonight is Sams Club, Mejier and Alid, tomorrow is Giant Eagle and Kroger. Luckily they are all within 8 miles of our house. This should be the only spending I have this week.

1/1: No spend, didn't even leave the house.
1/2: regular grocery shopping
1/3: regular grocery shopping

 

[pigletto]

1/1 $11 for a movie ticket. I am going to see Little Women with my mom and sister. No snacks for me. They are so overpriced anyway.
1/2 no spend
1/3 no spend
1/4 $69.89 groceries
1/5 no spend

 

[tinkarooni]

No spend months. I used to do those all the time. I will start yesterday. I have to focus on limiting clothes and groceries. We have a house full of both.
1/2 No Spend
1/3 $35.99 I used my allowance to buy a turtleneck sweater I was waiting to go on sale. That really has to be it for this month. Be strong!

 

[Judique]

I think this thread will help me.
I am retired and definitely living within my means, no credit card debt, but recently purchased a car that is new to me, and kept my other vehicle.
So, I paid for half the car and took a small loan for the other half. I want to use my existing budget to pay off this car this year, without withdrawing from savings, or retirement funds.

January 1,2,3,4 - no spend so far. All that talk of Dillard's sale made me want to look at the website but I resisted. I find a lot of my impulse spend comes from the internet.

Back to my car - it's a hybrid which has really reduced what I pay for gas. Big savings here.

Other impulse spending is takeout food or delivery food. Went to the freezer and took out the meat for our next 3 meals. I will need to do groceries on Monday for veggies, fruit and dairy, but not much else. I will make a list.

 

[Heluvsme]

Support and accountability are great tools, aren't they?!

Still on track here..... just groceries today! Tomorrow will be our weekly lunch out after church, planned for and budgeted.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Ugh haircuts and groceries today. Necessary evils!

 

[pigletto]

1/1 $11 for a movie ticket. I am going to see Little Women with my mom and sister. No snacks for me. They are so overpriced anyway.
1/2 no spend
1/3 no spend
1/4 $69.89 groceries
1/5 $10.69 laundry detergent at Costco. I actually walked out of Costco with ONE item today .. that has to be some kind of record . It’s certainly a personal victory !
1/6 no spend

 

[SaintsManiac]

This turned out to be an expensive week. I’m hoping for a budget friendly week ahead, but I have to go to Costco...

 

[azdisneylover]

This turned out to be an expensive week. I’m hoping for a budget friendly week ahead, but I have to go to Costco...

I hear ya. I need to go to Costco too, and I keep putting it off. I call it the local $300 store.

 

[Heluvsme]

Ok, I may have done some unplanned spending yesterday....
BUT....
hear me out, lol....

JCPenney had their capris in moisture wicking material on clearance for $5.55!!!! Three pairs later I have new capris for our May trip!!

No regrets!

 

[Deffenm]

Didn't spend anything this weekend. I didn't even drive and use up gas. Daughters favorite jeans had hole in butt so she called grandma and grandma came and picked her up and they fixed them right up.

1/4: No spend
1/5: No spend
1/6: Planning no spend. Co-workers are going to lunch today and I will NOT be joining them.

 

[Heluvsme]

Bumping to the top again.
Bought lunch while at work today, but besides that still on track!
Will probably be buying our Disney tickets in the next week or two.... paying in full, getting Chase points...will be using the points reward in the form of a gift card and take it on our vacation with us.

 

[fla4fun]

I am 62 1/2 and I have never had a budget. If there wasn't money there, we didn't buy stuff. We have always lived within our means, and I am cheap by nature. 3 weeks ago I had to go back a year and figure out exactly what we spent on everything. We hope to retire in 2020 and our Financial Planner wanted to see what we spent each year. It was interesting to see the numbers. Our biggest out lay is cash. I still do a lot of things paying cash (eating out, gas for the cars, etc).

It seems like budget is a dirty word to a lot of people. I have had a budget, in writing, since I started my first job. To me, a budget isn’t about restrictions and showing what you can’t do, but gives me the freedom to spend on things I want to while knowing the bills and savings are covered. It sure is a lot easier to budget on a computer than it used to be in a ledger, that’s for sure. I am also a big believer in cash whenever possible, and I am not carrying any debt at the moment. I don’t use a credit card unless the funds are already in the bank to pay the bill. It did take a lean year or two when I was first starting out, but once I had some savings established, I could relax a little. My everyday life is not buying anything that isn’t either in the budget or a planned splurge, so a no buy month wouldn’t seem any different than normal.

 

[tvguy]

To me, a budget isn’t about restrictions and showing what you can’t do, but gives me the freedom to spend on things I want to while knowing the bills and savings are covered.

I think we are of the same mindset. But in my case, I pay my bills, and if there is money left, I can spend on things I want.

 

[pigletto]

We’ve been killing it in the no spend department ! We have some plans for next weekend ... we are going into the city two hours away for a day at the museum and an evening at a comedy show that we got tickets for at Christmas. I think i we’ve mapped out a reasonable plan to bring food for one meal, and eat inexpensively for the other. We will park in one place and pay to Uber to the other location to avoid expensive parking twice. As long as there is a plan we tend to stay on track .

1/1 $11 for a movie ticket. I am going to see Little Women with my mom and sister. No snacks for me. They are so overpriced anyway.
1/2 no spend
1/3 no spend
1/4 $69.89 groceries
1/5 $10.69 laundry detergent at Costco. I actually walked out of Costco with ONE item today .. that has to be some kind of record . It’s certainly a personal victory !
1/6 no spend
1/7 $11.29 cough syrup..DH had a bad cough
1/8 no spend
1/9 gas and groceries $168.38
1/10 no spend
1/11 $4.46 milk
1/12 no spend

 

[David G Farr]

I’m participating by default. Getting married in 4 months so extra spending on eating out and other unnecessary items is out, although I did just spend $33 on a $50 disney gift card (the $15 off Amex promo ends this month). This far the only eating out was $4 at Dunkin’ donuts for my son.

 

[barkley]

a budget isn’t about restrictions and showing what you can’t do, but gives me the freedom to spend on things I want to while knowing the bills and savings are covered.

I pay my bills, and if there is money left, I can spend on things I want.

and my variation is-budget that pays my bills, my savings and if there's anything leftover at the end of that month-it goes into savings as well (went into effect after the house was paid off b/c prior to that even if it was just a dollar and some change it got tossed at the principal and interest to pay it off decades early).

i've never felt restricted by having a budget. i control my budget and make decisions concerning it. having one doesn't impact my income except to the extent that the more i save the more interest i get so the greater my income.

 

[tvguy]

and my variation is-budget that pays my bills, my savings and if there's anything leftover at the end of that month-it goes into savings as well (went into effect after the house was paid off b/c prior to that even if it was just a dollar and some change it got tossed at the principal and interest to pay it off decades early).

i've never felt restricted by having a budget. i control my budget and make decisions concerning it. having one doesn't impact my income except to the extent that the more i save the more interest i get so the greater my income.

I probably should track my spending more closely. I had to do a listing of everything we spent in 2019 for our financial adviser as we finalize our retirement spending, and by several thousand dollars a year our biggest spending is "cash". I know I buy all my gas, and meals out etc in cash, but at this point of my life my other bills are pretty small. No mortgage, small car payment.