2019 Controlled Spend/No Spend

[startsmart]

CS UPDATE

I won’t be moving in 8 days like planned.

I’m still overwhelmingly angry at the woman who offered to buy my house in cash and then backed out the day her deposit was due. So much time was wasted completing the contracts and full disclosures and giving her another walk-thru and then “never mind.” I can’t sell the rest of the furniture because of showings, I’m living out of a suitcase and eating random stuff in the pantry like sliced beets and tomato paste and sliced pears. By the end of the month I should be down to frozen fruit, tea and pasta. 

Trying to not spend any money even though I left my sewing stuff at my parents house and don’t have any needles or thread to keep working on my quilt. I went to the library which had closed due to wind and instead downloaded 30 free books to my Kindle on a bunch of subjects. Some were duds but I’m reading through them quickly until I can get my sewing stuff back.

My mom and I went to Yosemite for my birthday Monday and I only spent $2 on breakfast that day since she has a lifetime pass (saving $35 entry fee). It’s easy not to spend money at their house since there’s so much to do. I painted the front and back door, organized and labeled their pantry, organized mom’s sewing room and 300+ spools of thread, and we made a good dent in the living room boxes which came from their old house.

Updates:

Sept 23 - NSD
Sept 24 - NSD
Sept 25 - SD
Sept 26 - SD
Sept 27 - NSD
Sept 28 - SD - groceries, coffee
Sept 29 - NSD
Sept 30 - SD - food

Sept NSD Tally 4/8 Tracked

October 1 - NSD
October 2 - NSD
October 3 - NSD
October 4 - NSD
October 5 - SD - food
October 6 - NSD
October 7 - NSD
October 8 - NSD
October 9 - NSD
October 10 - SD - gasoline
October 11 - NSD
October 12 - NSD
October 13 - NSD
October 14 - SD food
October 15 - SD gasoline
October 16 - SD groceries

Oct NSD Tally 11/16

[shanendoah]

Blonde Granny - Please take care of yourself!

startsmart - so sorry the sale fell through. Have you talked to your realtor about the furniture that's there? Our realtor was very happy to have us move out all the furniture that was there and then paid for the staging out of his pocket. Since we had the dogs, it just made so much more sense for us to not live at the house while it was on the market. We luckily had friends who took us all in.

[TheOtherMe]

Oct 16, 2019 13:50:34 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

Amazon October 16

12 No spend

2 non-essential spending (1 returned)

1 essential spending

1 I also bought my birthday present to myself with the money my dad gave me.  

I screwed up the refund.  Instead of having it back to the CC, I had it go to a gift card.  Guess I won't be adding to a CC for anything I buy from Amazon for a while.

[moneysquirrel]

Blonde Granny -- Please take care of yourself.  


startsmart -- I know you are disappointed about the sale falling through.  I think that you may find in hindsight that it was a blessing.  You might come out ahead of what you would have.  It is too soon to know for sure but things happen for a reason even if it is hard to deal with at the moment.  Hang in there, breathe, and you will come out okay.

shanendoah -- I know that things have been rough the last few years but I see much progress in your circumstances.

My scheduled craft show for today has been cancelled due to an issue on their part so I will spend most of today catching up on things and getting a few new things pulled together in prep for next week's show.

[TheOtherMe]

Amazon October 18



14 No spend



2 non-essential spending (1 returned)



1 essential spending



1 I also bought my birthday present to myself with the money my dad gave me.

[nikiz628]

Oct 14, 2019 12:21:54 GMT -5 nikiz628 said:

Goal for 10/13-10/20


10/13: Friends invited us to a fall festival- for parking, lunch for 4, and one booth purchase we spent $61.00 
10/14: No spend-- Accomplished 
10/15: Weekly Taco Tuesday w/ Friends dinner (potentially not going). If so less than $30 for all of us. -- Our Mexican restaurant was packed, so we left and took the kids to McDonalds. Spent $14.96 for all 4 of us to eat- saved us approximately $10 this way! We did end up spending $9.50 at the ice cream truck this afternoon. It's the last day it will go around for the season and they had slashed a lot of prices- the kids are going to miss it (confession: I will too haha). 
10/16: Taking the kids to Chuck E Cheese for their annual birthday trip, budgeted expense- printed some coupons from their website and saved some $$. We did take them to Target after, and I bought DS2 a set of sheets for his new big boy bed (as soon as I buy the twin mattress that is!) They were 10% off plus my 5% RedCard discount- $16.26. We also spent $12.03 on gas station snacks for the drive (90 mins). We should've packed stuff from the house. Hindsight. 
10/17: No Spend- Friend and her son invited us to lunch playdate. Spent $9.51 for 3 of us to have lunch. 
10/18: No Spend- Should've been a no spend, but we spent $30 on dinner in a drive thru. Ugh. My nephew is staying the night and he's a picky eater. I wish I had planned better for tonight. 
10/19: No Spend- Accomplished! 
10/20: No Spend- Spent $6.00 at the ice cream truck. They made one last trip through our town for the season, with super discounted items. $6.00 bought ice cream for 5 people. Should we spend it? No. Do my kids absolutely FREAK OUT when they hear the music coming? Yes. Totally worth it. 

Looking ahead at the month:

Irregular expenses: Family Fun Night at DS1's school (dinner tickets), basketball registration for DS1, Halloween, several birthdays, classroom Halloween parties (hopefully enough parents donate to keep my out of pocket costs low). Of course, Christmas is on the horizon as well.


Going to track every bit of extra spending here this month, starting on 10/5 since that was my original post for the month:

10/5: $6.41
10/6: $0
10/7: $4.52
10/8: $0
10/9 $7.69
10/10 $0
10/11 $28.63
10/12 $16.17
10/13 $61.00
10/14 $0
10/15 $9.50
10/16 $28.29
10/17 $9.51
10/18 $30.00
10/19 $0
10/20 $6.00
10/21
10/22
10/23
10/24
10/25
10/26
10/27
10/28
10/29
10/30
10/31

[nikiz628]

Goal for 10/21-10/27

10/21- No spend. Accomplished! 
10/22- My birthday! Also our weekly taco tuesday friend date- but I think we may switch to a different restaurant for the occasion. They told me to pick anywhere. No pressure. Dinner was budgeted, so not a "spend" there. We did stop at TJMaxx before dinner and I bought myself a new pair of sunglasses. $10.68 for my birthday gift to myself lol. 
10/23- No Spend-- Accomplished! 
10/24- No Spend. It will be my bi-weekly grocery/errand day, but this is all budgeted. Spent $15 to wash my nasty car before it gets too cold. 
10/25- Family Fun Night at DS1's school. There is a fundraiser pizza dinner, which I budgeted for. Bought a frappe before sitting in the pick up line today for my son's school $4.27. Ended up only spending $12 on dinner, opted to just order pizza after the event because I had a good coupon code. (budgeted) 
10/26- No Spend--Accomplished! 
10/27-No Spend-- Saturday and Sunday we will be cutting into the roof of our house to start installing a dormer. I don't see any spending happening, since we will be stuck here. Hoping to stock up on snacks, easy grab items for the duration of the project to avoid drive thrus. -- Accomplished! 


Looking ahead at the month:
Irregular expenses: Family Fun Night at DS1's school (dinner tickets) PAID, basketball registration for DS1 PAID, Halloween, several birthdays LAST BIRTHDAY GIFT PURCHASED, classroom Halloween parties (hopefully enough parents donate to keep my out of pocket costs low). I ONLY HAD TO PURCHASE JUICE BOXES FOR THE 2 3RD GRADE CLASSES. CAUGHT A 40 PACK ON CLEARANCE FOR $7.98!  Of course, Christmas is on the horizon as well.

Going to track every bit of extra spending here this month, starting on 10/5 since that was my original post for the month:

10/5: $6.41
10/6: $0
10/7: $4.52
10/8: $0
10/9 $7.69
10/10 $0
10/11 $28.63
10/12 $16.17
10/13 $61.00
10/14 $0
10/15 $9.50
10/16 $28.29
10/17 $9.51
10/18 $30.00
10/19 $0
10/20 $6.50
10/21 $0.00
10/22 $10.68
10/23 $15.00
10/24 $4.27
10/25 $0.00
10/26 $0.00
10/27 $0.00
10/28 $0.00
10/29
10/30
10/31

[startsmart]

Oct 17 - NSD
Oct 18 - NSD
Oct 19 - SD, groceries
Oct 20 - NSD

I found my spare thread and needles so I’m working on the fabric pieces for the next quilt. I finished 75 this weekend which sounds like a lot but I’ll need close to 700.

[shanendoah]

Not a single spend day last week.  That makes 2 weeks in a row!  Not actually certain what to make of it, but I'll take it. Some things got moved around, like Starbucks on Wed morning instead of Thurs, and going out to dinner on Fri instead of Wed, but then we didn't go to CostCo (or get gas) at all this week. And the only reason there was a grocery store run on Sunday was I realized I needed bananas for the week. I actually spent the entire weekend in my PJs, except for the 20 minutes I was in sweats to take the dogs on a 15 minute walk. That was also the only time I left the house all weekend. (I made C do the grocery run by himself.)
Today, I have a 13 hour day at work, though, so I needed the refresh.

Getting November credit card payments scheduled means that I can take a look at how our spending compared to our actual budget throughout the year, and comparing it to previous years. Outside of bills and legal expenses, our biggest expense, by far in 2016 and 2017 was groceries. But starting in 2018, that changed to the house (not a big surprise with the selling and buying of houses and all the work that comes with that), and my allowance. Not mine and C's combined, but just mine. Spent less this year than last on my allowance, and this year, it's only $300 more than groceries through November (so I suppose it could change), but still, that's ridiculous. And yet, it feels like I don't really spend money on me. I bought new clothes not from a thrift store or CostCo for the first time in many years this summer, and that was still under $100. 
I went through and looked at what we spent on me, and there is about $1,800 in spending for the year that should be once every 3-5 years expenditures - new Surface, new monitor, new phone, so that should help. But taking those things away still had me spending about $150 more per month on me (on average) than I budgeted for.
At the same time, we did manage to actually grow savings by $5,500 over the course of the year. And even taking into account the $6k tax bill from last year, we've managed to keep monthly bills at slightly less than budgeted for. 
Still, if I want us to meet our long term savings goals, I need to take a hard look at what I am spending on me and see what changes I am willing to make.


Last week's (planned) v actual spending:
Monday: (Starbucks) Starbucks
Tuesday: (----) ----
Wednesday: (Dinner, Concert) Starbucks, Concert
Thursday: (Starbucks) ----
Friday: (Massage, CostCo, Gas, Groceries) Massage, Dinner
Saturday: (----) ----
Sunday: (Breakfast) Groceries


This week's (planned) spending:
Monday: (Starbucks, snacks) Starbucks
Tuesday: (----)
Wednesday: (Dinner)
Thursday: (----)
Friday: (Starbucks, CostCo, Gas)
Saturday: (Groceries)
Sunday: (----)

Current Month - (P)vA Running total	NS	CS&HS	Spend	Notes
October	(2)4 (2)2 (1)3 (2)	(2)0 (3)5 (4)4 (3)	(2)2 (2)0 (2)0 (2)	(Current Planned - 27 days) Current Actual - 20

Year long tracking:

Month (P)vA	NS	CS/HS	Spend
January	(8)6	(19)13	(4)12
February	(6)9	(13)12	(9)7
March	(8)9	(14)16	(9)6
April	(10)9	(16)14	(4)7
May	(10)13	(11)8	(10)10
June	(9)7	(12)14	(9)9
July	(9)10	(13)16	(9)5
August	(8)4	(13)18	(10)9
September	(6)7	(18)16	(6)7
October
November
December

[shanendoah]

Also, Happy Birthday nikiz628! (because I won't remember tomorrow)

[nikiz628]

Oct 21, 2019 11:16:18 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

Also, Happy Birthday nikiz628! (because I won't remember tomorrow)

Thank you! 😘

[TheOtherMe]

Amazon October 24

18 No spend

3 non-essential spending (1 returned)

2 essential spending

1 I also bought my birthday present to myself with the money my dad gave me.

I have another return.  I thought I ordered one of an item.  I was charged for and received two, so one is going back tomorrow.

I did catch that I somehow ordered 13 boxes of cat litter.  I do not need 13 boxes of cat litter to store and got that stopped.

[startsmart]

Oct 17 - NSD
Oct 18 - NSD
Oct 19 - SD, groceries
Oct 20 - NSD
Oct 21 - SD, post office
Oct 22 - NSD
Oct 23 - NSD
Oct 24 - NSD



NS Tally: 17/24

I’ve had 2 more house showings this week and shipped off some packages I had promised. Otherwise a slow week.

[laterbloomer]

Oct 8, 2019 20:13:20 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

$45 getting Charlie groomed, so that's $57 non essential spending so far this month. I'm going out of town the weekend of oct 18, that's going to be a $200 hit. My nails will be another $50. I'm going to try really hard to spend nothing else.

So I've actually spent $474 so far, $167 more than planned. $40 of that is for a ticket to a dinner next month, $20 was a lunch with a coworker, and the rest. $107, was extra expenses for the conference I went to. We went out for a couple of higher end meals. I need to not buy non essentials the rest of the month, 7 days.

[nikiz628]

I am already looking ahead to next month and trying to formulate a "NO SPEND NOVEMBER" plan.    

[nikiz628]

Goal for 10/28-10/31

10/28: No Spend-- ACCOMPLISHED! 
10/29: No Spend (Minus our budgeted weekly taco tuesday friend dinner)-- Skipped dinner to work on our house. No spend day! 
10/30: No Spend-- ACCOMPLISHED! ONLY 1 MORE DAY TO GO! 
10/31: No Spend-- ACCOMPLISHED! 

I am DETERMINED to finish this month out without spending. ::fingers crossed:: 

Going to track every bit of extra spending here this month, starting on 10/5 since that was my original post for the month:

10/5: $6.41
10/6: $0
10/7: $4.52
10/8: $0
10/9 $7.69
10/10 $0
10/11 $28.63
10/12 $16.17
10/13 $61.00
10/14 $0
10/15 $9.50
10/16 $28.29
10/17 $9.51
10/18 $30.00
10/19 $0
10/20 $6.50
10/21 $0.00
10/22 $10.68
10/23 $15.00
10/24 $4.27
10/25 $0.00
10/26 $0.00
10/27 $0.00
10/28 $0.00
10/29 $0.00
10/30 $0.00
10/31 $0.00

[vetswife]

Blonde Granny- do take care of yourself and get enough rest.  Radiation can make you extra tired.


I've done okay on spending this month though I am still going over my grocery budget.  I buy a lot of produce so I know that's part of it but I like fresh fruit and veggies.  Also paid $98 to the dentist my insurance didn't cover and bought some clothing which I rarely do so that was extra and unplanned.  

[startsmart]

Oct 25 - NSD
Oct 26 - NSD
Oct 27 - SD, groceries

NS Tally: 19/27 days

Power outage in my town and all across California today so I went out and got some breakfast after realizing I had very little in the fridge that didn't require heating. Thankfully I got power back this afternoon so I'm catching up on chores. I'll go pick up a few groceries tonight and possibly 1 small bag of candy for trick-or-treating this week. I rarely get many kids so I'm not going to overdo it. 

For the rest of Oct I need to fill up the car with gas and get an oil change and will have another package to send which I should be able to cover with the hoard of stamps in my office. There's not much else that I need so I'm hopeful to get to the end of the month with 22 or 23 NSD.

[shanendoah]

On Tuesday, we called to get C an eye doctor's appointment and an annual exam scheduled. They were able to get him in for the eye doctor on Friday. I am considering that a controlled spend because it was necessary. The same with the glasses, which will actually end up being covered almost entirely by the last of our FSA for the year. The Amazon spending, though, that was a spend. I think we're going to switch to using the Amazon card as our primary credit card, though, so that will help cover some of our "fun" Amazon purchases.
This week starts Restaurant Week, where high end restaurants do limited three course menus for a greatly discounted price ($35). Right now, we only have lunch planned on Sunday with a friend, but there's a good chance we'll decide to try somewhere during the week. I put that on Thursday, as it will happen tomorrow, Thursday, or Sunday night.
I'm having lunch with a friend who works on campus tomorrow. We'll likely eat on campus, and I'll pay with the money on my staff ID (which I don't count here), but just in case we go somewhere else, I figured I'd mark it in the plan.
I'm starting the initial planning stages for next year's budget. Open enrollment starts next week, and I think we're switching to a less expensive plan (that will still meet all of our needs). Trying to decide if I want to incorporate staying "in budget" for some of the big categories here - groceries and my allowance being the main ones - to help keep me mindful of those things.


Last week's (planned) v actual spending:
Monday: (Starbucks, snacks) Starbucks
Tuesday: (----) ----
Wednesday: (Dinner) Dinner
Thursday: (----) ----
Friday: (Starbucks, CostCo, Gas) Starbucks, Gas, CostCo, Eye Doctor, Groceries
Saturday: (Groceries) Groceries
Sunday: (----) Amazon, Eye Glasses


This week's (planned) spending:
Monday: (Starbucks) Starbucks
Tuesday: (Lunch)
Wednesday: (----)
Thursday: (Starbucks, Dinner)
Friday: (CostCo, Gas, Groceries)
Saturday: (----)
Sunday: (Breakfast, Lunch)

Current Month - (P)vA Running total	NS	CS&HS	Spend	Notes
October	(2)4 (2)2 (1)3 (2)2 (1)	(2)0 (3)5 (4)4 (3)4 (2)	(2)2 (2)0 (2)0 (2)1 (1)	(Current Planned - 31 days) Current Actual - 27 days
November	(1)	(1)	(1)	(Current Planned - 3 days) Current Actual - 0 days

Year long tracking:

Month (P)vA	NS	CS/HS	Spend
January	(8)6	(19)13	(4)12
February	(6)9	(13)12	(9)7
March	(8)9	(14)16	(9)6
April	(10)9	(16)14	(4)7
May	(10)13	(11)8	(10)10
June	(9)7	(12)14	(9)9
July	(9)10	(13)16	(9)5
August	(8)4	(13)18	(10)9
September	(6)7	(18)16	(6)7
October
November
December

[TheOtherMe]

Amazon October 28


20 No spend

5 non-essential spending (1 returned)

2 essential spending

1 I also bought my birthday present to myself with the money my dad gave me.

[moneysquirrel]

Keeping things on an even keel.  I did place an order earlier today for beading supplies.  These were a few items I needed to work on the next project plus a few that I will make up for the craft shows.  This purchase will come out on the little profit I made this fall from the craft shows.

[startsmart]

Oct 25 - NSD
Oct 26 - SD, groceries
Oct 27 - SD, food during power outage
Oct 28 - SD, groceries
Oct 29 - NSD


NS Tally: 19/29 days

[laterbloomer]

So $35 for using a toll highway when I went to Toronto this summer, $20 for lunch with a coworker and $20 for coffee and meals for ISO and I when he got his angiogram on Tuesday. So I'm up to $550 for the month. Still fairly low for me. 

[Blonde Granny]

I'm happy the new month starts tomorrow, this gives me a fresh start. I have adjusted some spending amounts for the next 2 months and hope I can stay within my spending plans.

[TheOtherMe]

Amazon October 31


22 No spend

6 non-essential spending (1 returned)

2 essential spending

1 I also bought my birthday present to myself with the money my dad gave me.

[nikiz628]

We've reached the end of October, time to add up my non budgeted/non essential spending.
10/5: $6.41
10/6: $0
10/7: $4.52
10/8: $0
10/9 $7.69
10/10 $0
10/11 $28.63
10/12 $16.17
10/13 $61.00
10/14 $0
10/15 $9.50
10/16 $28.29
10/17 $9.51
10/18 $30.00
10/19 $0
10/20 $6.50
10/21 $0.00
10/22 $10.68
10/23 $15.00
10/24 $4.27
10/25 $0.00
10/26 $0.00
10/27 $0.00
10/28 $0.00
10/29 $0.00
10/30 $0.00
10/31 $0.00

$238.17 was spent from 10/5-10/31. Not horrible, but that's definitely money we could have used in a better way. Looking ahead to November, we are going to try another No Spend November. I will lay out my goals in my November 1 post. 

[startsmart]

Ending up with 20 NSD in October which isn’t bad at all. I’ll need to grab my receipts and tally up groceries but the dollar amount was not too high either.

I’m mostly happy that I didn’t deal with all the shit in October by spending money unnecessarily.

[shanendoah]

Updating for October, because if I don't do it now, I will forget some of the spending I did.
Wednesday, I realized I hadn't gotten candy for the office for Halloween, and I needed to go buy a couple of birthday cards. I also decided to pick up take-out for dinner with BFF, so she didn't have to cook, as her wife is out of town for the week. Because of all that, I decided I would get Starbucks on Wednesday and let Thursday be a no spend. But....
C applied for a job on Monday. They contacted him right away, and had him come in for an "interview" on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they offered him the job. For the job, he needed steel-toed boots, since he's working on the production line floor. He started the job today. So last night we went to the Red Wing store and got him boots. And then we did take advantage of Restaurant Week and went out to dinner.
So quite a bit more spending this week than planned. But I'll take it. And there will be more money coming in.

And overall, October was a great month for sticking to the plan. There were only 5 days I considered spends in the whole month, and two of them were this week! 
I also think that with him working 4 days a week, we'll be even better at sticking to the plan, though the plan may need to include a few more nights of take-out each month. 


Last week's (planned) v actual spending:
Monday: (Starbucks, snacks) Starbucks
Tuesday: (----) ----
Wednesday: (Dinner) Dinner
Thursday: (----) ----
Friday: (Starbucks, CostCo, Gas) Starbucks, Gas, CostCo, Eye Doctor, Groceries
Saturday: (Groceries) Groceries
Sunday: (----) Amazon, Eye Glasses


This week's (planned) spending:
Monday: (Starbucks) Starbucks
Tuesday: (Lunch) ----
Wednesday: (----) Starbucks, candy, cards, take-out
Thursday: (Starbucks, Dinner) shoes, dinner
Friday: (CostCo, Gas, Groceries) amazon
Saturday: (----)
Sunday: (Breakfast, Lunch)

Current Month - (P)vA Running total	NS	CS&HS	Spend	Notes
October	(2)4 (2)2 (1)3 (2)2 (1)1	(2)0 (3)5 (4)4 (3)4 (2)1	(2)2 (2)0 (2)0 (2)1 (1)2	(Current Planned - 31 days) Current Actual - 31 days
November	(1)	(1)	(1)	(Current Planned - 3 days) Current Actual - 0 days

Year long tracking:

Month (P)vA	NS	CS/HS	Spend
January	(8)6	(19)13	(4)12
February	(6)9	(13)12	(9)7
March	(8)9	(14)16	(9)6
April	(10)9	(16)14	(4)7
May	(10)13	(11)8	(10)10
June	(9)7	(12)14	(9)9
July	(9)10	(13)16	(9)5
August	(8)4	(13)18	(10)9
September	(6)7	(18)16	(6)7
October	(8)12	(14)14	(9)5
November
December

[Blonde Granny]

Thanks to everyone for their good thoughts.  I have 5 more radiation treatments and I am done.  Just happy it was caught so early.

As a heads up for all of you....if you ever notice a tiny bit of spotting on your panties, don't wait around.  Get yourself to your PC or obgyn asap.  It just might save your life as it has mine.  (ps) I was 74 when it was discovered and never had a hysterectomy....have now.

[startsmart]

Hoping I can get another 20 NSD in November. Today is a spend day for groceries and probably gasoline if I can go out tonight and then spend the rest of the weekend at home.

I did save over $100 today by doing a trade with a local businesswoman which was nice. Grocery shopping to get the supplies for more soup and I should be good with food for a week or more. I will need dog food but otherwise no shopping on the horizon for the next week.