2019 Controlled Spend/No Spend

[nikiz628]

No Spend November! Our "guidelines" for the month are: Christmas purchases are allowed (inevitable, and mostly budgeted). Obviously grocery/household items are also allowed. And our weekly dinner date with friends ($1 Tacos on Taco Tuesday at our local Mexican restaurant- very cheap and so fun!) Everything else will be categorized as No Spend. 

Goals for 11/1-11/9
11/1- No Spend-- Accomplished! 
11/2- No Spend-- We had some errands to run today. H had a $25 Olive Garden gc from his birthday, so we ordered two 1/2 gallons of soup and breadsticks to go. I had a 15% off online order coupon. Our total came to $31.46, so we had to pay $5.46 for dinner (and a few lunches of leftovers!). Not too bad IMO. We also spent $5.00 on drinks for 4 of us earlier in the day. 
11/3- No Spend-- Accomplished!
11/4- No Spend -- Accomplished! 
11/5- No Spend, except for our weekly Taco Tuesday Friend Dinner-- Accomplished! 
11/6- No Spend-- Accomplished! 
11/7- H has a conference in Indy for 3 days this week, I am surprising the kids today by taking them to stay at the hotel with their dad. We plan to stay at the hotel, swim and order a pizza while H attends his conference dinner. His employer paid for the hotel, so we will only have to pay to park. Spending will probably occur, but hopefully minimal. -- DS2 was super well behaved during my oil change today, so he got a Happy Meal for lunch. I grabbed a $1 sandwich and a $1 drink, so we spent $5.88 on lunch. We are at the hotel now, spent $29 having pizza, breadsticks, and drinks delivered. So 34.88 for the day. 
11/8- Spending will probably occur while we are in Indy today (want to check out IKEA for the very first time). Hopefully minimal. -- Spent $55 at IKEA- $15 was picking up an item for a friend (she is paying me back). About $20 of it was Christmas gifts, so budgeted spending. $20 was random stuff, so it will count as a spend. We stopped on our way home and had lupper- spent $57 (which makes me wanna puke, we should've picked somewhere cheaper). Finally, we stopped at Target. I picked up a few Christmas items (budgeted). We also purchased 2 new (and much needed) bed pillows for $20. Total Spend for the day- $97. Yeesh. 
11/9- No Spend. -- Accomplished. 

Spending Tracker: 
11/1 $0.00
11/2 $10.46
11/3 $0.00
11/4 $0.00
11/5 $0.00
11/6 $0.00
11/7 $34.88
11/8 $97.00
11/9 $0.00
11/10
11/11
11/12
11/13
11/14
11/15
11/16
11/17
11/18
11/19
11/20
11/21
11/22
11/23
11/24
11/25
11/26
11/27
11/28
11/29
11/30

[shanendoah]

Starting out November with a couple of spends, but most of it was related to C's new job, or in one case, was something we'd been planning on buying, I just thought we weren't going to buy it for another couple of weeks. So I am good with where we are. This will be the first full week of C working, so we'll see how that goes. I've got dinner on the schedule for Thursday night, as that will be the last night of Restaurant Week (yes, it goes for two weeks), but I don't know that we'll actually go out. We have a LOT of leftovers in the fridge (chili, enchilada pasta, chicken tikka masala).
We may also end up buying some more music for him to listen to while he works on the production line. We'll have to see. 
I'm guessing we'll still do CostCo on Friday, as he'll be picking me up at a park and ride right near CostCo, but a lot will depend on how he's feeling after being on his feet all day. Not this week, but maybe starting next week, we might switch our CostCo shopping day to Tuesday or Thursday.

Doing kind of a quick check on how I'm doing for the year, I am pretty happy with the fact that I've had 4 more No Spend Days than planned, and 2 fewer Spend days than planned.
Thinking about next year, I think I'm going to try tracking if we're staying in budget for the month, as well, at least in key categories.


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

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

Current Month - (P)vA Running total	NS	CS&HS	Spend	Notes
November	(1)0 (2)	(1)1 (3)	(1)2 (2)	(Current Planned - 10 days) Current Actual - 3 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

[laterbloomer]

So far so good for November, i haven't spent anything yet. I should be able to do the rest of the week with no unnecessary spending. This is my best in a while.

[TheOtherMe]

Amazon November 5

Necessities 1

No spend 4

[laterbloomer]

So I spent $28 today, $8 for my passport pictures and $20 for a pair of jeans. I am also going to have to spend $160 to renew my passport. On the other hand I have to go to Toronto for some training and I get mileage so that will help the bottom line this month.

[shanendoah]

I basically bought my cousin's birthday gift yesterday. I paid the fee for her to attend a conference up here next week that will be really good for her professional development/finding a job. Plus, it means she comes to stay with me for 3 days, which makes me very happy.

[moneysquirrel]

Did a little shopping this week at DressBarn. Sorry to see them close but only got a few items that I needed and was planning to purchase soon anyway.  May make another trip or two before they close for good. Salesperson indicated that they still had more than 100 boxes in the storeroom to unpack.  

Also made one grocery run and got gas.  

All of you are doing well.

[Blonde Granny]

I've had some unexpected RX that i had to pay for, total now is about 75 (that's for me copays)

my last radiation is tomorrow morning, so with any luck my life, with all that it entails can get back to normal.

[startsmart]

Friday was a NSD, I did buy coffee and tea with a client but that’s a business expense so I don’t count it. Today has been a spend day but I’ve also got enough food for a week or two and spent time working around the house.

[moneysquirrel]

Blonde Granny -- Take care of yourself.  

Spend some on dinner last night.  Got together with a group that I haven't seen in a few decades so well worth the money.  Need to make a WM run this week.  Definitely not doing that on a weekend.  

Filling up a cart with supplies I need to order for my hobby.  Haven't order a lot of these items in a few years and will eventually recoup the expense when I sell at the craft shows.  Actually I will pay for the order with money from this year's shows and then start saving for future purchases.  I can sometime pick up items locally but the choices are extremely limited.  I don't  buy a lot of things as my needs are few.  This hobby keeps me busy and the craft shows are great for me to meet and mingle with people in the area.  I do them with a friend and it gives us time to visit during the slow periods as well as make connections with other crafters. 

[nikiz628]

No Spend November! Our "guidelines" for the month are: Christmas purchases are allowed (inevitable, and mostly budgeted). Obviously grocery/household items are also allowed. And our weekly dinner date with friends ($1 Tacos on Taco Tuesday at our local Mexican restaurant- very cheap and so fun!) Everything else will be categorized as No Spend.

Goals for 11/10-11/16
11/10- Annual Christmas bazaar that DS1 and I always go to together. Will probably spend something. -- Bought a few items for myself today, but used my birthday money. We did pick up lunch for the 4 of us on the way home- $16.00. 
11/11- No Spend. -- Accomplished. 
11/12- No Spend, minus our weekly Taco Tuesday Friend Dinner Date. -- Since it decided to snowpacolypse in Indiana yesterday, we stayed in and ate leftover chili. No spend! 
11/13- No Spend. --H went out to pick up my RX and brought back ice cream for everyone (I had a rough day, he did it to be sweet). $8.46 on ice cream for 4. 
11/14- No Spend. -- Accomplished! 
11/15- No Spend. -- Ended up taking DS2 to McD for a quick lunch. $6.80. We had planned to order pizza for dinner tonight because we had $10 in pizza rewards and a good coupon code. Cost out of pocket for 2 pizzas and cheesesticks $10.68. Total today: $17.48
11/16- No Spend. -- Laziness won after working on the house all day and we went thru a drive thru. $27.54 later....

Spending Tracker:
11/1 $0.00
11/2 $10.46
11/3 $0.00
11/4 $0.00
11/5 $0.00
11/6 $0.00
11/7 $34.88
11/8 $97.00
11/9 $0.00
11/10 $16.00
11/11 $0.00
11/12 $0.00
11/13 $8.46
11/14 $0.00
11/15 $17.48
11/16 $27.54
11/17
11/18
11/19
11/20
11/21
11/22
11/23
11/24
11/25
11/26
11/27
11/28
11/29
11/30

[shanendoah]

Least week wasn't too bad. I bought my cousin's birthday gift/conference registration. On Friday, I had some time to kill at Fred Meyer and bought my mom's birthday card (this coming Saturday). I need to start planning for Christmas and December birthday spending.
This week, my cousin arrives on Wednesday for the conference on Thursday. She wants to go out to our favorite Indian place while she's here. She'll stay with us through Friday night and on Saturday move to a hotel downtown for the big interview she has on Monday.
Another friend will be at the same conference on Thursday, which is here on campus, and which I am the department contact for, so I'll be over there a lot that day, and hopefully get a chance to have lunch with both of them.

Last week's (planned) v actual spending:
Monday: (Starbucks) Starbucks
Tuesday: (----) ----
Wednesday: (----) KD B-Day
Thursday: (Starbucks, Dinner) Starbucks
Friday: (CostCo, Gas) Fred Meyer
Saturday: (Groceries, Music) CostCo, Groceries
Sunday: (----) ----

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

Current Month - (P)vA Running total	NS	CS&HS	Spend	Notes
November	(1)0 (2)2 (2)1	(1)1 (3)3 (3)	(1)2 (2)2 (2)	(Current Planned - 17 days) Current Actual - 11 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

[startsmart]

Yesterday was speedy because I had an oil change (when did they go from $20 up to nearly $50?!), got groceries and a coffee. Today I bought a few things I can find locally online so I need to decide if that’ll get lumped together with yesterday’s grocery shopping.

I’ll have a few more fabric swaps happening this month and will probably need gas before the weekend is up.

I have an out of town funeral on Saturday and there’s a public memorial tomorrow that I’m going to record on the off chance I can watch it without crying.

[startsmart]

Nov catch up: 


Nov 1 - SD groceries
Nov 2 - NSD
Nov 3 - NSD
Nov 4 - SD groceries, general household
Nov 5 - NSD
Nov 6 - SD groceries
Nov 7 - SD groceries, fabric
Nov 8 - NSD (client spend day)
Nov 9 - SD breakfast
Nov 10 - NSD
Nov 11 - SD - oil change, coffee, groceries, fabric
Nov 12 - NSD
Nov 13 - NSD

7/13 NSD so far which could definitely be better. Today will be a spend as I need to mail packages, buy a few overdue pieces of clothing and possibly get gas after driving for a funeral. 

To keep  from randomly spending money I've been working on a new quilt which will have approx 2000 pieces in it. I have no idea how many have been sewn so far but I am hopeful that I can finish this month if I get all the fabric pieces I need. 

[laterbloomer]

So I've spent $58 on odds and sods, coffee, lunch, snacks...total non essential spending is $86 so far this month.

[moneysquirrel]

On the whole doing fine. Spent some on dining out with friends and getting needed items.  Staying home and just going back and forth to the classes I take helps keep me out of the stores and I am not big on internet shopping.  Do have several items in a shopping cart but those are related to my hobby and the little money I make at the craft shows will pay for that order once I to place it.  Still making slight adjustments as to the items.  Will probability place it next week so that it will come in during the week I have no long days away from the house.  

[nikiz628]

No Spend November! Our "guidelines" for the month are: Christmas purchases are allowed (inevitable, and mostly budgeted). Obviously grocery/household items are also allowed. And our weekly dinner date with friends ($1 Tacos on Taco Tuesday at our local Mexican restaurant- very cheap and so fun!) Everything else will be categorized as No Spend.

Goals for 11/17-11/23
11/17- No Spend.--Accomplished. 
11/18- No Spend.--Accomplished
11/19- No Spend, minus our weekly taco tuesday friend dinner. -- Skipped dinner, No spend!
11/20- No Spend, other than budgeted grocery trip.-- H and the boys made a Menard's run for reno supplies and they talked him into stopping at a new little coffee shop near the store. They brought me home a mocha frappe so I couldn't be too mad- the price tag for everything was a bit WHOA though- $24.22. 
11/21- No Spend-- Accomplished! 
11/22- No Spend-- We were kid free for a few hours tonight, so we treated ourselves to dinner. $23.72 spent. H bought his lunch today, so $13.18 spent on that. Total for today: $36.90
11/23- No Spend-- The new coffee shop got us again haha. H made a joke that his hardware store trips are getting more expensive since he drives right by it. I told him he's going to have to work on his willpower and ignore the call of the caffeine. $15.99

Spending Tracker:

11/1 $0.00
11/2 $10.46
11/3 $0.00
11/4 $0.00
11/5 $0.00
11/6 $0.00
11/7 $34.88
11/8 $97.00
11/9 $0.00
11/10 $16.00
11/11 $0.00
11/12 $0.00
11/13 $8.46
11/14 $0.00
11/15 $17.48
11/16 $27.54
11/17 $0
11/18 $0
11/19 $0
11/20 $24.22
11/21 $0
11/22 $36.90
11/23 $15.99
11/24
11/25
11/26
11/27
11/28
11/29
11/30

[shanendoah]

Last week ended up with a couple more spends than I thought. My cousin and I went wedding dress shopping on Friday and Saturday. I bought us lunch on Friday, and got her gas on Saturday. Right now, she is job hunting and her fiance is still recovering from an accident where he was on a bike and got hit by a car, so they don't have any money coming in. His parents have plenty and are footing a lot of bills, but they're the kind of people whose "gifts" come with strings. So I pretty much paid for everything she would let me pay for while she was here. (And we made the offer to give her the money for a couple of mortgage payments, but she turned us down.) 
Wednesday night, I bought plane tickets to go see my father in February. This trip has been planned for quite some time. And last week, Alaska Air had a flash sale, taking the cost of the plane tickets to less than $200 round trip to visit him, so I went ahead and booked it. I am calling it a controlled spend because the trip had been planned. I can't plan for the Alaska Air flash sales, but I can take advantage of them.
This week should be pretty quiet. With C working, it's changed our schedules, so we're looking at moving our CostCo day to Tuesday early evening. Friday early evening or Saturday are just too crowded. Otherwise, it should be a quiet week.


Last week's (planned) v actual spending:
Monday: (----) ----
Tuesday: (Starbucks, Copay) Starbucks, Copay
Wednesday: (Maid) Plane tickets (CS), Maid
Thursday: (Starbucks, Lunch) Starbucks, Lunch, Kickstarter
Friday: (Gas, Dinner) Lunch, Dinner
Saturday: (Groceries) KD Gas
Sunday: (Breakfast) Groceries

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

Current Month - (P)vA Running total	NS	CS&HS	Spend	Notes
November	(1)0 (2)2 (2)1 (2)	(1)1 (3)3 (3)3 (3)	(1)2 (2)2 (2)3 (2)	(Current Planned - 23 days) Current Actual - 17 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]

I think I have some unexpected costs again on this Thursday. The HVAC guy is coming to check the system for want, but also have told them there is something wrong in the duct work that is making very loud sounds when furnace turns off. Also , this thermostat hat was put in 6 years ago when house was built is a piece of junk, and needs replacing.

I'm really getting tired of this house.

[moneysquirrel]

Blonde Granny -- Thanks for reminding me to set up my HVAC check for the winter.  Been on my mind to call to set up the appointment.  Read your post and called -- Appointment made for Dec 3.

I did a little spending today.  Got two new tops from the DressBarn Closing sale.  Put several back as well.  May check out the other store later this week as they are still emptying the items in the back of the store and they usually have a better selection than the store closer to me that I hit this morning.  I don't need a lot but this is the first time I purchased clothing since I retired 3 years ago and several items were beginning to show the wear.  Also paid the property taxes and did a grocery run this morning.  

On the plus sign I have been doing some private tutoring and will use some of that money to pay for the tops.  The sessions this week will cover the cost.    Also the two craft shows last week earned enough to almost cover that order that I will place tomorrow or Wednesday. 

[vetswife]

Not doing too well on the spending so far this month; got a lot of yard work done: pruning, putting down mulch, etc.; HOA bill paid: bought some at a craft sale.  I have a savings account for the HOA, homeowner insurance etc. but haven't transferred the money yet.  I also hosting Thanksgiving so need to get the food.  And I've bought a couple of Christmas gifts.

[startsmart]

Today was a spend to get my dog’s nails trimmed and I plan to go out for groceries in a few hours. I have a feeling I’ll have more spends this month due to feeling crummy and not being able to knock out all my errands in a single day.

[moneysquirrel]

I did a little shopping last week.  Picked up two additional tops at the going out of business sale and placed the order for my beading habit.  A lot of those items will make things that I will attempt to sell at future craft shows.  That purchase will be paid for with the little profit from this year's shows.  This week I need to visit the grocery to pick up the last few items needed for Thanksgiving dinner. I plan to do that tomorrow if all goes according to plan.  
I have been slowly picking up a few items for Christmas and only have a few gifts left to get.  I don't have a lot to get anyway. Will not be going out on Black Friday to fight the crowds.  There is nothing worth fighting crowds for.  Plus now that I have retired I can go when others are working.  

[shanendoah]

Managed to stay on plan last week. Pretty proud of that. We did make an Amazon purchase this weekend, but used Amazon points, so didn't actually pay anything. I will likely bring in treats for the office on Wednesday. Thursday is just going to be a turkey breast and mashed potatoes. But Saturday is the day we'll have people over for a big meal. So I figure there will be planned shopping on Friday and last minute (we forgot X) shopping on Saturday.


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

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

Current Month - (P)vA Running total	NS	CS&HS	Spend	Notes
November	(1)0 (2)2 (2)1 (2)3 (1)	(1)1 (3)3 (3)3 (3)4 (3)	(1)2 (2)2 (2)3 (2)0 (2)	(Current Planned - 30 days) Current Actual - 24 days
December	(1)	(0)	(0)	(Current Planned - 1 day)

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

[TheOtherMe]

I have no idea of how I've done with Amazon this month.  Will try to start again in December.

[nikiz628]

Goals for 11/24-11/30

11/24- No Spend. --- We went and got ice cream at DQ last night after spending the entire weekend working on the house. $16.11
11/25- No Spend. -- Accomplished. (Almost caved and ordered pizza because H and I were exhausted, but talked myself out of it- so proud of that #adult moment) 
11/26- Weekly taco tuesday friend dinner + I am finally getting my haircut- both budgeted expenses. -- Accomplished. 
11/27- No Spend-  Accomplished.
11/28- No Spend- Accomplished. 
11/29- No Spend- Accomplished. 
11/30- No Spend--Accomplished. 

Spending Tracker:
11/1 $0.00
11/2 $10.46
11/3 $0.00
11/4 $0.00
11/5 $0.00
11/6 $0.00
11/7 $34.88
11/8 $97.00
11/9 $0.00
11/10 $16.00
11/11 $0.00
11/12 $0.00
11/13 $8.46
11/14 $0.00
11/15 $17.48
11/16 $27.54
11/17 $0
11/18 $0
11/19 $0
11/20 $24.22
11/21 $0
11/22 $36.90
11/23 $15.99
11/24 $16.11
11/25 $0.00
11/26 $0.00
11/27 $0.00
11/28 $0.00
11/29 $0.00
11/30 $0.00

[moneysquirrel]

Another trip to the grocery and paid off that craft order that came in today.  That does not come out of the household budget. Planning to stay close to home the rest of the week.  

[moneysquirrel]

Hope all had a very great Thanksgiving.  I am very grateful for all the friends I have made on the boards.  This was for a very long time the only thread I participated in and I discovered it on the old MSN site shortly after after DH passed.  I lurked for about a year before joining and then only rarely,  Now that I have retired my needs and expenses are less but I am a creature of habit and still watch every penny.  I have been fortunate in always having had a sense of money -- early pt job were in the credit dept of a major department store and my DM also was the credit manager at a different type of store. One learns a lot about finances and managing money working in that type of job.

I do fear that I will have a large household bill coming up.  Think I have a leak and will place a call to the plumber early Monday to have them check it out. Utility bill came in triple the usual amount. 

[nikiz628]

Adding up all of our non-budgeted spending for November. 

Total Spent In November $305.04

It's not a horrible total but it was higher than October... so clearly we failed a little at our "no spend November" challenge. I say a little because it's not a total fail- we are learning and monitoring where are money is going and that can never be a fail in my opinion. 

Moving on to December, going to try a No Spend month again! 

[laterbloomer]

I had $480 in non essential spending. For me that's really good