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

[getforfree]

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

My challenge will be over in a few hours too.

[Bookie]

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

Day 12: Pleasant surprise of the day -- My visitor from last weekend stopped in briefly to give me her Sunday newspaper. (She knows I go into withdrawal without the Sunday Times crossword puzzle.) An abundance of advertising, much of it screaming about the last shopping day of the pre-school tax holiday. I had forgotten about that.

Glancing through the ads started me thinking about the post-Challenge binging discussed earlier. Is that something I should consider as a potential problem? ("Local Man on Rampage in Shopping Mall! Details at 11:00.") Well, I do have a grocery list I'm eager to take to the store, but that's mostly just the perishable stuff that we've all talked about. ("Berserker in Produce Department! Authorities seek berry-stained shopper.") Plus, that backlog of laundry is going to need to be addressed. Funny how I forgot about the coin-op machines when I set the terms of my Challenge, so it's piled up a bit. ("Global Warming Connected to Dryer Use in Recent Study!") But binging? No, I don't really see that as a concern. I mean, aren't we all going to need to replenish our larders and play catch-up to some extent when this is over? ("Market Falls as Consumer Spending Spikes in August!") Nothing out of the ordinary there.

The other thing I noticed is that the pump price of gasoline has actually fallen over the weekend. This is encouraging because it means that I can now not afford gas this week more easily than I could not afford gas last week. Of course, thanks to the Challenge, I really don't need to buy the gas I can't afford, even at the better rate, so it's all good.

[Ima saver]

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

No, it really has not been that hard. I still have 3/4 of a tank of gas, so I am ok there. I think to me it was more the boredom of not going to town and walking around what few stores we have. I have never been a mall person, it blows our whole day when we go there and it is 2 hours away!

[boefixepa]

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

Okay, back from the weekend. That's two weekends without spending! Without leaving my house(expect for church)! That right there is an accomplishment! As my two weeks come to end...I smile in that I caved only once to go out to eat and once to run the AC to cool the dogs down! I am very pleased with my ability to tell myself NO! and the ability to be creative.

Now technically I should wait until tomorrow morning to say my challenage is over, but I am thinking about picking up some produce on sell, which of course ends today. I am mulling this over in my head as to weather this consititutes failure, weakness, or penny piching wisdom?

Bell peppers are on sell 4/$1, a ten lbs bag of potatoes 1.89, leaf lettuce and spinish .69 and bannanas 3lbs/$1....I don't know were you are, but that's pretty good for around here.

I am also feeling the urge to get going on the 3 months with no grocery shopping goal for myself and will pick up the few items I need this week for that too.

I have really enjoyed this challenge, there have been times it has been difficuly, for sure, but it has really made me stop and realize, just how many little things I spend money on and how much I just don't really need.

[Ima saver]

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

My challenge was over last night, but I did not spend any money just stayed home. I am going to go to the grocery store now and get some of the things we are out off. i am also motivated to stay home and cook supper tonight!

[Kris10Leigh]

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

I'm missing the challenge already. I miss the constant activity of this thread.

This past weekend I started stocking my freezer like I used to do. It's very easy and I'm not sure why I don't do it more. Basically, I planned out two weeks of dinners when we started this one-week challenge and I am into the second week of that. I now have 9 EXTRA dinners in my freezer. This means I could go another 9 days without going grocery shopping except for milk, produce and the like.

I'm lousy about planning for lunches though. I always buy either too much or too little deli meat and I always underestimate how much bread we will need.

[PrincessPerky]

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

Sigh I failed, a cool gift for the BIL was found on sale, it prolly wouldn't have killed me not to get it, but it was for someone else, I have a harder time saying no to that sort of thing..

though on a good note I did talk DH into not going ot the store tonight, course that was only cause I sent him to refill DSs medicine, in some ways the medicine could have waited, but in others I save more by keeping him out of the store than pride in manageing to go the whole week.

[Dido]

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

I miss the activity of the thread, too. I think that helps keep me going.

I did some unplanned spending today, too--went out to lunch, then stopped at the nearby petstore and got my dog enough treats to last the rest of the month.

I think from here on in, for me, it's more about doing a better job keeping within limits and less about not-spending. This month I'm living on restricted income, and after bills and what I've spent so far, I have $272 left in the budget for food, gasoline, and any household expenses that come up. So that will require a lot of no-spending days, but without as much excitement about the challenge here, it's getting easier to say, "I know I'm going to need to buy X, so I might as well stop while I'm in the neighborhood."

[Ima saver]

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

You know, I found I have some money left over in my allowance. That has never happened to me. I always seem to run out of money on Sundays and If I need something from the store, I borrow from the "prescriptions" envelope and pay it back on Monday's payday. Usually I can do without cause we stay home most sundays>

[boefixepa]

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

Ima, you saved some money! Good job!

[Ima saver]

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

I guess anybody that had a no spend week has saved some money this past week. I think I will add it to my challenge money! One million dollars, here I come!

[Bookie]

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

I guess anybody that had a no spend week has saved some money this past week. I think I will add it to my challenge money! One million dollars, here I come!

Yes, I think that's probably the case. I still have a day left in my Challenge, but I've been working on my figures, and I may as well post them.

Be back in a minute.

[Bookie]

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

Day 13: Well, it's winding down, isn't it? One day left. I've been thinking about how much I've enjoyed the past two weeks. It's really been something of an education.

I've also been preoccupied with deciding exactly how I want to go about computing my savings as a direct result of the Challenge. Logically, I saved what I didn't spend, but I don't think I'd feel right about claiming the Mercedes 500SEL I frugally refrained from snapping up over the weekend.

I suppose it would be more realistic to only count the things I normally would have bought in in the course of the Challenge and did not. Yes, but looking around at my past purchases, it's hard for me to claim honestly that there's much of anything I might not "normally" buy. My track record hasn't been good. (The woven Turkish mousepad with tassel fringe illustrates my point.)

So maybe I need to keep this very simple. I live my life, day-to-day, on a cash basis. I draw my weekly allowance on Monday, and that sees me through. What I have in my pocket at the end of the Challenge is what I saved, simply because it's what I didn't spend.

On Monday, 7/24, I had $11.40 remaining from the previous week. I collected my cash, went to the grocery and bought gas. I signed onto the Challenge on Tuesday, a day I spent no money, but I counted Wednesday as my official start. So here's my tally:

Mon. 7/24 - $11.40 - Cash on hand
Mon. 7/24 - $50.00 - Cash added
Mon. 7/24 - $12.79 - Groceries
Mon. 7/24 - $14.50 - Gasoline
Sun. 7/30 - $34.11 - Cash on hand
Mon. 7/31 - $50.00 - Cash added
Frid. 8/04 - $11.03 - Insurance rebate check cashed & added
Sun. 8/06 - $95.14 - Cash on hand

Today I picked up my weekly allowance, but that's earmarked for spending, so I exclude it from the total.

Challenge Savings Total - $95.14. I rounded it up to an even $100.00, and that is the amount that goes into my savings account.

[Dido]

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

Ah, I saw this and calculated my savings too, but in a different way. I have an Excel spreadsheet lisitng all my expenses by date and category. I calculated my expenses for each of the first 4 weeks of July and got an average weekly expenditure--although I omitted from that average my fixed spending on mortgage and utility bills. Then I got the average spending for the last week of July/beginning of August and I looked at the difference: 220!

If only I had $220 in liquid cash that I could transfer to savings, but I'm living too close to the margin this month to do that.

[Ima saver]

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

Well I usually have no money (or maybe $3) left over for my allowance on Monday morning. This week I had $50 left over for my challenge account which goes to savings.