The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Throw Down the Gauntlet => Topic started by: Miss Piggy on December 30, 2022, 10:31:52 AM
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I'm needing to dramatically cut back on stupid frivolous purchases. I'm thinking cold turkey would be my best approach. Anybody interested in joining me in a "try to buy nothing" year? (You have today and tomorrow to get what you want before 2023 begins!)
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Nope, I love buying stuff, count me out lol. Ok, but honestly I really should join, I’ll seriously consider it.
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Nope, I love buying stuff
My problem exactly.
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I'm starting a low-buy year (see my new and not-so-filled-out-yet journal which I started a few weeks ago)-- so am happy to join.
Did a complete No-Buy five years ago and it was a super interesting experience. Ended up loving it more than I expected since I am a die-hard materialist (artist, creative, maximalist, etc).
Have fallen off the tracks recently in terms of purchases and had a dismal financial year last year so that's why I'm revisiting this type of challenge
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Nope, I love buying stuff
My problem exactly.
Me three. And @Miss Piggy --exactly indeed.
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Nope, I love buying stuff
My problem exactly.
Ok, I’ve given it some thought and I’m in for buy (almost) nothing 2023. A couple exceptions though, anything I buy for the purpose to resell (for example I buy an antique from a garage sale that I then sell online, not that I do that very often but it can happen), as well as anything I buy for myself that I actually use to make money (for example I just recently found a deal on a used tree pruning saw, which I will definitely use to tackle the odd side job). Other than that I’m going to try not to buy anything for myself. I should be good for personal clothes and work clothes and shoes for the year, and I definitely don’t need to be buying other stuff. Let the savings begin!
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Did a complete No-Buy five years ago and it was a super interesting experience. Ended up loving it more than I expected...
Same here, maybe 5-7 years ago. It was really good for me...and I have fallen off that wagon hard!
So happy to see some joiners here!
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I’m in. We are repatriating in 1.5 years, and my goal is to fit all our stuff into six suitcases. Buying nothing (except food) for the next 18 months will definitely help.
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I love reading about people who do Buy Nothing years, but I find my problem tends to be in the opposite direction...I don't buy enough. I HATE buying things and really need to loosen up because sometimes it costs me money. Penny wise/pound foolish stuff. I can always rationalize putting off a purchase. Walking out of a store with nothing is my favorite thing. Ha! I win! But...then I need the thing, and I don't have it. Or the indefinitely deferred maintenance bites me in the butt.
Closely related: I love throwing things away. I'm the opposite of a hoarder. But sometimes that gets me into trouble, also.
Anyway PTF to cheer you on with something that comes naturally to me. But personally I shouldn't join. My family will wind up with a lot of issues if I'm encouraged to buy nothing.
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Walking out of a store with nothing is my favorite thing.
Hahaha I can do this too. I find Target utterly overwhelming, for example. But I also have bought myself a fair bit of more expensive things online this year. I agonize over those purchases and take weeks/months to actually do them. I don’t really have an issue with going to stores or online and randomly shopping. Anyway, it’s neat to hear about someone who should buy more!
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I'm in -- I was already planning a minimal buying year as it is. I've done it in the past and loved it, and decided that 2023 would be a good year to do it again.
I usually make a list of things I think we're going to need to buy, versus doing a big spend at the end of the year. And there are things I always allow, such as needing new socks or underthings, or something for the house if it must be replaced (like a broken major appliance). I allow the purchase of thread if I'm sewing with fabric I already have and don't have a close match in thread at home, because that allows me to use the fabric and make something I need. I also have one tradition that I don't break in a no buy year, and that's picking out a Christmas ornament as a souvenir when we travel if I find something meaningful. I don't want to punish my family with my challenges, lol.
But really, I just love the creativity that emerges in a buy nothing year. It's honestly more satisfying to come up with solutions with what we have. Even yesterday, I was trying to figure out a solution to store the dusters in our utility closet, and was thinking maybe I should buy one of those under shelf baskets. But since I'm trying not to buy things, I decided to see if I had any hooks in the hardware drawer, and I did. DH installed those for me and I was able to hang the dusters up high out of the reach of the puppy.
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I'd like to join with some customization.
So maybe more "buy nothing unless it was on the list before I left the house."
Grocery list - no more than once a week shop and only from a list (doesn't matter if it's on super duper clearance because that's usually food I'd binge on)
Others - wait 30 days before buying (unless it's part of a repair)
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I am in for "almost nothing" - we had a spendy 2022 and a) I wish to cut back anyway and b) we got almost everything.
A couple of planned exceptions:
1. A new mattress (but looking for bargains)
2. 1-2 upcoming video games that are scheduled for 2023 releases
3. Minor house and garden maintenance items (only Feb '- April)
4. Occasional op-shop clothing for DH (nothing needed for me)
Ofc groceries and pet supplies don't count (but I aim to stay within budget despite inflation).
Accountability may help to achieve that, I hope.
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I'd like to say I am in but I am doing to much house makeover stuff BUT I have a goal regardless of beating my monthly budget by 1k a month.
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Day 1. So far, so good! :)
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Day 1. So far, so good! :)
Almost there! Only 364 more days to go after this one!
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What are the 'rules' though - for example is a sink plunger or a drain unblocker (the latter I have, the former I would like)?
I would like a 'minimise plastic' year but it's hard (for someone as tight with money as me - eg loose apples are €2.50 a kg, but I can buy 3kg in a plastic bag for €3...).
Books - I'd 'normally' go to the library, but un/fortunately I now live in France so all the books in our local one are in, er, French. So I do buy the odd one - secondhand.
Sorry if this is posted somewhere already.
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I like to be mindful of my spending, so I'll follow along. We're FIRE, so the point is to keep the frugality muscles firm(-ish).
Exceptions for The Dicey's:
Food - continue to grocery shop at buy-what-they have vs. full line grocery stores (Grocery Outlet, 99 Cents Only) and Costco/Winco/Sam's.
Clothing - I'm going to limit myself to thrift shopping only, and only the one I where I volunteer. I can buy whatever I want there, especially on discount days. The exception will be Moab. I can go to All The Thrift Stores when I'm there for the October 2023 Meet-Up. I might even lead a Moab Thrift Store Crawl, who knows?
Medical - I qualify for Medicare this year, woo-hoo!
Supplies - Any flip/rehab projects we may take on in the New Year, though we always shop CL, Restore, etc, first, so that won't change.
Glaring exceptions:
Carpet: Now that we are pet-free (sniffle), we will be replacing some carpet. I'll get it through a friend in the business before she retires, but it definitely will be new.
RV Travel - It's going to cost whatever it's gonna cost. Not going to scrimp there. OTOH, we're not going to stay at KOA's and eat out every night either.
CM*TO, if the stars align this year.
Good luck to everyone!
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What are the 'rules' though - for example is a sink plunger or a drain unblocker (the latter I have, the former I would like)?
I would like a 'minimise plastic' year but it's hard (for someone as tight with money as me - eg loose apples are €2.50 a kg, but I can buy 3kg in a plastic bag for €3...).
Books - I'd 'normally' go to the library, but un/fortunately I now live in France so all the books in our local one are in, er, French. So I do buy the odd one - secondhand.
Sorry if this is posted somewhere already.
I think the rules can be whatever are reasonable for your situation.
Btw, for books, can you get ebooks from a public library from an English-speaking country. You say you moved to France. Did you use to live in in an English-speaking country? We live in China but are from Canada. I have access to ebooks through my Canadian library system.
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I like to be mindful of my spending, so I'll follow along. We're FIRE, so the point is to keep the frugality muscles firm(-ish).
Exceptions for The Dicey's:
Food - continue to grocery shop at buy-what-they have vs. full line grocery stores (Grocery Outlet, 99 Cents Only) and Costco/Winco/Sam's.
Clothing - I'm going to limit myself to thrift shopping only, and only the one I where I volunteer. I can buy whatever I want there, especially on discount days. The exception will be Moab. I can go to All The Thrift Stores when I'm there for the October 2023 Meet-Up. I might even lead a Moab Thrift Store Crawl, who knows?
Medical - I qualify for Medicare this year, woo-hoo!
Supplies - Any flip/rehab projects we may take on in the New Year, though we always shop CL, Restore, etc, first, so that won't change.
Glaring exceptions:
Carpet: Now that we are pet-free (sniffle), we will be replacing some carpet. I'll get it through a friend in the business before she retires, but it definitely will be new.
RV Travel - It's going to cost whatever it's gonna cost. Not going to scrimp there. OTOH, we're not going to stay at KOA's and eat out every night either.
CM*TO, if the stars align this year.
Good luck to everyone!
These are good things to think about. I'd totally forgotten that we need to replace the flooring in one room. Our older GSD ripped a dinner plate sized hole in the carpet back in 2015 while trying to escape a crate -- he was a brand new rescue and we didn't know about his crate phobia. I filled that hole with a piece of foam and taped over with a duct tape patch, and we continued on. To our amazement, he went bonkers on it again this November when we left him in that room with the puppy (who was in a crate, but the older dog wasn't). This time he did more damage, and it's at the threshold to the door. I couldn't find a way to repair it, so we've been stepping over the area on the way out the door. The carpeting is 12 years old. The plan is to empty that room this spring, paint, and either put down LVP or have it recarpeted. Then we're doing a room switch (it's not really a family room, it's a bedroom and our oldest has been sharing it as a bedroom along with it being where we all watch TV and where DH works on WFH days) for when our oldest graduates from university and comes home for graduate school.
Anyway, we'll have those expenses. And I hear you on the RV travel -- if we can get away we will and it won't all be boondocking and eating in the van. And while I won't go to thrift stores regularly, if I do I'll keep an eye out for well priced wool, silk, and linen clothing. I find I have to hold the long view if I want to have a thrifted wardrobe.
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Day 1 finished and successful at not buying anything at all, despite temptation. Lately I've become aware of how often something I see or read will send me researching and how that often turns into buying opportunities. Someone will share a book that looks interesting, or a craft project I'd like to do, or a kitchen item that seems useful. I don't always buy these things, of course, but I don't always say no, either. It can start out innocently, too, such as seeing a book and deciding to check the library, but then they don't have it so I look for it used.
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Day 1 done!
I find my brain an interesting thing. Yesterday and this morning I keep thinking about how refreshing a soda from the machine at the nearest gas station would be. What makes this weird is that I haven't bought one when not on a road trip for at least 6 months. But now that they're "off-limits," boy, do I want one. Weird.
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I dreamt about thrifting last night--too funny!
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I'll join as well. Need to be very careful with spending for the next few years.
One big buy is happening this month; to replace 2022's final extra cap on a terrible year.
Slow leak in the hot water heater, which is unlikely to be repairable. I've got 2 appointments for estimates scheduled.
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I'll join as well. Need to be very careful with spending for the next few years.
One big buy is happening this month; to replace 2022's final extra cap on a terrible year.
Slow leak in the hot water heater, which is unlikely to be repairable. I've got 2 appointments for estimates scheduled.
Welcome! I think non-optional purchases like a water heater get a pass. Well, I'm giving you a free pass for it, anyway. And you're getting two estimates, so you're being smart about it.
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I was successful again yesterday :) I do love a challenge! I checked my meal plan and decided I don't need to buy groceries this week. Looking ahead I realized we will probably need to buy marinara before the month is up, and I considered getting some Rao's because it is $4 per 22 ounce jar from Sam's Club and I've only heard good things about it, but then I decided not to get the family hooked on something that probably won't be that price again for a long time. I can't even have tomato sauce due to a tomato allergy, and there's no good reason to do something that might result in them being unhappy with the Aldi sauce I buy.
This morning I was tempted by a book the library doesn't have and I could have bought used, but the challenge reined me in.
Broken, irreparable major appliances and house systems definitely fall within allowed purchases!
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Looking ahead I realized we will probably need to buy marinara before the month is up...
OMG, I read this way too fast, and what I saw was "...need to buy marijuana before the month is up..." Ummmm, sure, I guess that gets a pass???
Anyway, there's your chuckle for the day. :)
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Looking ahead I realized we will probably need to buy marinara before the month is up...
OMG, I read this way too fast, and what I saw was "...need to buy marijuana before the month is up..." Ummmm, sure, I guess that gets a pass???
Anyway, there's your chuckle for the day. :)
Oh, that is funny!
On our list of permitted items I forgot to put down glasses and contacts. We all need glasses this year, and my oldest also needs contacts (he races in contacts + clear sports glasses if there isn't enough light for the prescription race sunglasses). With the insurance benefit we'll probably get glasses from Costco.
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Was just offered a great deal on a (used) tv which is much newer than our current one.
I almost said yes to it before I realized that it's off limits for the year.
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Im in! 5 days and no problems so far.
A few for me obvious exeptions:
Stuff my kid needs (I try to mostly buy used)
Gifts - The $ adds up, but so difficult to limit or aviod
Things bought to make money/business expenses
Replacements when stuff breaks, clothes get holes etc
Almost feels like cheating, but I do this challenge to avoid buying more hobby stuff that wont get touched, clothes I can do without,
upgrading phone and computers when its a want and not a need.
My biggest struggle will be not buying a ps5 and new hiking gear.
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K in the kitchen, having rescued many dogs I recommend that you don’t get carpet. Vinyl pergo is virtually indestructible and ours still looked new 10 years later despite having a German shepherd and 3 small dogs. It doesn’t scratch when they run and cleanups are easy if they get sick or have an accident.
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K in the kitchen, having rescued many dogs I recommend that you don’t get carpet. Vinyl pergo is virtually indestructible and ours still looked new 10 years later despite having a German shepherd and 3 small dogs. It doesn’t scratch when they run and cleanups are easy if they get sick or have an accident.
Thanks for the advice, I'm glad to hear some real world experience with the vinyl. Our biggest issue with this room is that it was added on to, with half of the floor being original hardwood and the other half being whatever subfloor they put down under the original carpeting when they added on. There is a place in the floor where the transition between types of floor is, and while it is not very noticeable when carpeted, the last time we had flooring people out they say we would have to either solve the unevenness or put a visible transition there, right down the middle of the room. Last time we chose the carpeting because of the money factor -- it's the only carpeted room in the entire house.
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K in the kitchen, having rescued many dogs I recommend that you don’t get carpet. Vinyl pergo is virtually indestructible and ours still looked new 10 years later despite having a German shepherd and 3 small dogs. It doesn’t scratch when they run and cleanups are easy if they get sick or have an accident.
Thanks for the advice, I'm glad to hear some real world experience with the vinyl. Our biggest issue with this room is that it was added on to, with half of the floor being original hardwood and the other half being whatever subfloor they put down under the original carpeting when they added on. There is a place in the floor where the transition between types of floor is, and while it is not very noticeable when carpeted, the last time we had flooring people out they say we would have to either solve the unevenness or put a visible transition there, right down the middle of the room. Last time we chose the carpeting because of the money factor -- it's the only carpeted room in the entire house.
It might not be that difficult to plane the floors out. You can install a thin layer of underlayment to make the low side even out, and deal with any difference to the next room with a transition in the doorway, which will be much less noticeable.
I've had the same "scratchproof-ness" with LVP. My partners lab and my (now deceased) Newfoundland ran all over the LVP as we were building our last house, not a scratch.
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I'll join as well. Need to be very careful with spending for the next few years.
One big buy is happening this month; to replace 2022's final extra cap on a terrible year.
Slow leak in the hot water heater, which is unlikely to be repairable. I've got 2 appointments for estimates scheduled.
Ended up that it was repairable - less $ out of my pocket. Water from the city is high enough to cause pressure valve to discharge a steady amount of water.
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Went into Costco this afternoon to drop off an older set of frames to be given my newest prescription.
Managed to walk out with only 2 items and I think I've discovered a trick to help with that. I walked in with one of their cooler bags, and decided not to get a cart. Much harder to load up on random temptation when carrying it versus chucking it into a cart. Only picked up the 2 items I was originally planning on and nothing else. Spent less than $15
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Looking ahead I realized we will probably need to buy marinara before the month is up...
OMG, I read this way too fast, and what I saw was "...need to buy marijuana before the month is up..." Ummmm, sure, I guess that gets a pass???
Anyway, there's your chuckle for the day. :)
This reminds me there’s a crudely-made wooden sign I drive past on the highway that the writing was done by burning into the wood that upon close inspection reads “Fire Wood Delivery 555-5555”, but because the burning was done so crudely I always read it as “For Weed Delivery 555-5555” lol
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“For Weed Delivery 555-5555” lol
I mean...it IS rather convenient...
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Well, I made it four days ... and then failed spectacularly by buying plane tickets to Disney World.
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Well, I fell off the wagon today. Bought some fast food.
What makes it even more ridiculous is that I walked to the place. I could have made something healthier out of my fridge in the time it took to walk there.
On the bright side, I did not stop at the discount store on the way home to buy any of their sea salt dark chocolate that is really good. It wasn't on a list.
Back on the wagon now!
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Today was a spend day, but it was all allowable items. We went to Costco to check out the optical department because we had seen that they carry Ray-Ban frames, and being as my son's current Ray-Ban frame has been in use for 5 years, he wanted to get the same frame. Well, the idea of getting a Ray-Ban frame for $99 at Costco went out the window when we looked at them and realized that they must be "made for Costco" versions which were super lightweight and flimsy plus was made in China and not in Italy like his current frame. Ditched that idea, but we did make a return and also bought the items on our list: biotin, generic Zantac, toilet paper, olive oil, avocado oil spray, lemon juice, and maple syrup (I use it in my soft sourdough bread). Then we went to the optician's office and ordered glasses using the insurance benefit there, getting the exact model number of frame he has now.
I'm always surprised by how easily I slip into a buy nothing (other than food and other absolutely necessary items) month or year. I find myself "shopping" without thinking about it for the first couple of days and having to remind myself not to buy whatever I'm looking at, then my brain resets and it gets much easier.
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Finished off Week 1 relatively well. I only purchased food this week.
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I'm in, but only for myself. We've been remodeling a house since last July and still need to buy some things before we move in, hopefully soon (bathroom is still in progress).
I hate shopping, even for groceries so I haven't bought anything in 2023 (the whole 5 days).
My weakness is running gear and all that comes with running. I don't do a lot of races, but do have one on the 13th and one in April (paid for last year).
I have enough running shoes to last this year, maybe. There are 2 races I want to sign up for that will require a lot of training/putting miles on shoes.
Oh, I did buy meat and eggs from a local farm on the 4th. I consider that family food. My husband and I share that, but buy our own groceries separately. I work nights and he works days, so not really a sit down and eat together family.
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For face-punchable "reasons", limiting our spending on household items etc. is extremely unlikely this year. So I wanted to at least eliminate any non house-related merchandise from the budget.
Therefore, I was planning on a No Clothes Buying year --until my SiL's dog chewed up my luggage *and* my trusty leather jacket due to NYE fireworks. Neither looks very repairable, though I 'might try with the jacket (or just limp along with alternatives until Spring).
I suppose the luggage isn't technically "clothing", but it's still personal "merch". And I can't put it off indefinitely, because we already have another long trip by air lined up for this year.
EDIT: SiL is going to cover the suitcase, and I found a hand-me-down peacoat in the closet that ought to get me through the winter, so I'm back on the wagon for now!
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1st week and so far nothing but good and petrol for the car.
Not even tempted.
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I finally took a vacation this week (and bought stuff) - but I'm going to try and play along this year.
My goal will be not to buy things for the kids. I was thinking I would do the whole family but I'm like englishteacheralex and pretty good at waiting too long to buy things for myself. I have a list of things that I will need to buy this year since I didn't buy them last year. I just patched both of my pairs of jeans (one for a second time) and I don't think I'll get through the winter without needing to buy a new pair :).
But as long as my kids don't hit major growth spurts I shouldn't need to buy more than a new pair of shoes and whatever the teachers ask us to buy for their classrooms.
I'm in starting today.
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We've been doing a turnkey condo remodel and it's almost finished, which means it's shopping for final necessities time. We went to the "scratch and dent, mostly Costco returns" store. I scored two sets of blackout drapes that were 24.99 at Costco, but 16.99, in a better color, at the outlet. Score!
I saw a 20 piece clear Rubbermaid opened but complete set for 19.99. Amazon sells the 10 pc. set for that price, so in the cart it went. Then I found a Pyrex dish with a Snapware cover for 2.99. Yes. Neither of these are for the condo, oops. I can justify these because I make virtually every meal at home, right?
But this store is a treasure trove and one has to be sharp-eyed to find the deals. Everything is "here today, gone tomorrow" if not sooner. Next to the checkstand, I noticed a plain cardboard box full of long, slim plain brown boxes. Of course I had to look. They were walking sticks. Titanium! With cork handles! With several sets of tips/baskets! Super lightweight! In a handy carrying case! "How much?" I asked. $49.99. Kryptonite. I caved. They're coming with me to the Moab Meetup in October.
For fellow reno geeks: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/real-estate-and-landlording/west-coast-rta-cabinet-maker-recommendations/
For more walking stick justification: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/meetups-and-social-events/magical-moab-meetup-2023/
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Successful first week.
Looking forward to 52 more :)
Avoided buying anything except food this week but I do need to pick up some books from a local bookshop which were preordered last year so it is an anticipated cost.
My partner made an amazing eggs benny for brunch and now we are going to the art gallery (already have yearly memberships) which makes for a no-additional-spend Sunday.
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Successful first week for me too, didn’t buy anything that wasn’t a need (food, rent, utilities etc). Plus I’ve got a car load of donation stuff ready to go to clear out some room
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Week 1 success here as well.
I do find myself needing a creative solution for a new problem I've invented for myself: I need something that I can use as pots for some jade plant cuttings I hope will root and grow. I have some potting soil and succulent soil, but I have no pots, and I don't think this little project qualifies as a "need."
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Week 1 success here as well.
I do find myself needing a creative solution for a new problem I've invented for myself: I need something that I can use as pots for some jade plant cuttings I hope will root and grow. I have some potting soil and succulent soil, but I have no pots, and I don't think this little project qualifies as a "need."
I wonder if you can put this request on a local Buy-Nothing group? Many people who garden have stashes of pots :)
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Week 1 success here as well.
I do find myself needing a creative solution for a new problem I've invented for myself: I need something that I can use as pots for some jade plant cuttings I hope will root and grow. I have some potting soil and succulent soil, but I have no pots, and I don't think this little project qualifies as a "need."
I wonder if you can put this request on a local Buy-Nothing group? Many people who garden have stashes of pots :)
Yes, I had this same idea. I first need to find our local Buy Nothing group. I used to be a "member" (?) of one of them, but it's been a while.
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I just purchased $40 of crafting supplies, but I don't think it counts because I didn't use my own money!
(I'm actually teaching a class and need the supplies for the class, but I get to keep all the extra supplies.)
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Had a minor fall down over the weekend. Was looking for something specific that I needed, it wasn't available, and ended up buying something else on sale. Didn't really need it yet, should have skipped it.
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I bought some shop supplies the other day and had a really hard time only buying what I really needed when looking around the store. Managed to get out of there before I made any impulse purchases, but dang this is going to be a hard year lol
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Woops.
We were asked to host a children's event for our church and just spent $100 bucks on craft kits. Probably could have sourced things on buy nothing- but time vs. money.
Also bought myself a bottle of alcohol free wine that I absolutely did not need and paid 20 bucks to take the kids to open gym time at the ninja gym (winter is hard).
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Been following this thread quietly, and I think I am going to throw my hat in the ring. For now, I'm hoping to stave off all un-essential purchases (ie, not food that we cook, mortgage/utilities/childcare), unless something we use often breaks.
As an additional, I am planning to prioritize replacing anything that *does* break with a plastic free option where possible. We will see how it goes.
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I had a major spend day on Monday -- not a buying things day, but I paid the university tuition for one kid, registration on two vehicles, the insurance premium for adding a car last December (they took a long time to bill that), and made two charitable donations. That much in one day is a big "ouch" and reminds me why the pennies matter.
I'm still at zero necessary purchases, but I did have to pay for a kitchen knife and a small flatware set for my college kid, plus a $70 microwave (which someone is supposed to go in half on). He lives in a university-owned house, and one of his roommates graduated and took the kitchen items he'd provided. I guess that's one benefit of not living too far away and making multiple trips to move out, because my kid won't have room to bring home everything we had to buy when he drives home.
But ... I've been trying to craft everyday as part of my 2023 goals, and while my intention is to use stash items, I realized I don't necessarily have all the components I need. I knew I might need to buy thread, but hadn't considered that I don't have the insulating material I need to make a table protector/hot pads/placemats. I made a placemat with regular batting (some thrifted cotton-poly stuff) and my kid still caused a white mark on the table by setting down a scalding hot mug. It wasn't as bad as it would have been with nothing there, but I'd still like more protection. We got this table last November and while it is lovely and 100% solid wood, it's also old and doesn't have the kind of coating that doesn't cause white marks (from what I understand the white marks come from moisture getting under the finish after the heat softens it, and I know the table has a wax finish, plus I polished it with a wax polish).
My goal for the table protector is to thrift an old wool blanket or something similar and shrink it down, but the table is 98" at its longest so I may have to piece something together. In the meantime oversized placemats seem like a good choice.
Another potential project is sewing an insulated curtain for the door between the garage and the detached bedroom, as that is the one place the room is losing heat -- the rest is well insulated with dual pane windows. It's an old house and the door has a single pane window in it. Anyway, I'll price sewing one versus buying one, as clearly this is a need. I do have a couple of no longer in use blackout curtains that could serve as the fabric, and then I would only need a thermal batting.
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This is harder than I thought. I'm not buying "stuff," just junk food. Less than a typical week in 2022 but not nothing.
I'm not giving up but modifying my goals. With a plan that by December, it'll be a true "no buy" month.
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Still at $0 spent. Oh, I did eat a banana from a bunch my husband bought so whatever a banana costs these days. Finishing up the food I already have. Will need to put gas in my car soon and that's about it.
I ran tonight in the dark and took my husband's headlamp (ended up not using it bc there was enough light) and I had it on my head for 5 minutes and I don't like how it feels. Started looking for waist lights for running, but I also don't like things bouncing around my waist and don't want to buy something without trying it on.
I don't run that much at night anyway so his headlamp is fine if I need one.
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My personal rules for this challenge don't include food or experiences..it's material objects that I'm attempting to limit.
So far, so good. My ski boots need a new liner but I doubled up socks today and I think that's going to do the trick.
I like how thrift-store visits just aren't on my radar as entertainment right now (BUT I've managed to do my yoga daily so the time is positively going elsewhere).
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My personal rules for this challenge don't include food or experiences..it's material objects that I'm attempting to limit.
Same for me.
I placed a few last-minute Etsy and Amazon orders on December 30-31. Those packages have all arrived now...so no more stuff at my door for a looooooonnnngggg time! :) :(
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I was so tempted to buy things I didn't need today! I'd placed a bolt of Insul Bright into my online cart at Joann yesterday, and decided to sleep on it. This morning the Insul Bright was on a better sale that started today, plus I had an email offering me an extra 25% off everything (except door busters). I found myself poking around the Christmas clearance items (pretty ribbons) and trying to figure out if I should buy thread and rotary blades now with the coupon (and a sale) or wait until they are truly needed. I looked at fabric to make the insulated door curtain. Ribbons went into the cart. But then I reminded myself that even if I were to need Christmas ribbons for a project later in the year, I don't need them now for any specific projects, and was likely wanting to buy them because I
like collect pretty things, especially pretty craft items. Ribbons were removed from the cart.
So I ordered the Insul Bright only, since that is the only thing I need. I'm going to repurpose some blackout curtains to sew the insulated door curtain. I'll also be using the Insul Bright for place mats and to make insulated panels for several windows (to go up against the glass behind the drapes. I got the 10 yard bolt for $35.99 instead of $79.99, so I think I did okay. The by the yard version wasn't on sale and would have been $6 per yard with the coupon, versus the $3.60 per yard I paid by buying a bolt.
Looking ahead to a several birthdays coming up that we celebrate with gifts, we decided to gift one person cash (as that is most needed), to gift another person a no-longer-used-by-me Apple Watch (family member recently mentioned to DH that they would like to have one) plus dinner out, and I'm sewing a gift using fabric and thread I already have for the other person's birthday, which isn't for another 6 weeks but I need mailing time and also don't want to procrastinate and end up buying something instead. Yes, gifts for certain family members would be okay for this challenge, but it's still nice to come up with other options when we can.
In other necessary spending, I bought a mixed nuts (DH) and a box of 5 dozen eggs.
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So far so good. Only spending has been on essentials: bike (commuter) maintenance, train pass (commuting), food, housing. I know from experience thst this will get harder in some ways, and easier in others, so taking it a day at a time.
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So far, so good. Went to Sam's, spent only $30 on ingredients. Returned 2 items, got $15 credit.
We were reviewing purchases for a reno project we're just wrapping up. Noticed we were overcharged $200 on a large appliance package. Stopped by the store and got the $200, plus tax, refunded.
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Good job @Dicey ! That’s a big mistake on their part, glad you caught it.
So far, doing well.
Need to pick up the two books that were ordered from our local bookstore in December but only just arrived last week.
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Update: lost another article of clothing (my favorite hat) over the weekend; the wind down at the shore just whipped it clean off my head, and it was out of sight before I could turn around and look for it. But I have other hats... (*sigh*)
I also saw a post elsewhere about a certain Dudely vestment being half-price today; I'll admit I looked, but even at half-off it's still way more than I (or the Dude, most likely) would ever be willing to pay for a humble cardigan.
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well, I made my first spend on a non food item in 2023. I lasted a whole 16 days, and then succumbed to the eBay purchase of a Raclette grill.... so that we can make grilled cheesy goodness at home, but yea, it was $100 I didn't *have* to spend. Although I sat on the idea for a while, and did research other options, including whether we could DIY it on our pancake griddle.
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I've been doing a no spend January already. I need to cut back on frivolous purchases for the year and use / be content with what I have. Some exceptions for me:
Gifts - birthdays, anniversary's and Christmas. My family really celebrates, so it's hard to cut these out without major disappointment.
Garden / Blog - As a side hustle, I write a garden blog so some of these purchases are business / professional development. Web hosting, photo editing, classes, need a few gardening tools that are planned.
I'm bad about buying clothes, shoes and home decor. Those are the things this challenge will help with.
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Need to pick up the two books that were ordered from our local bookstore in December but only just arrived last week.
I went to pick up these books and received 25% off one of them due to a slightly damaged corner (they offered, I barely noticed it!) and then another $22 off because I had filled a card (they do a buy 9, receive a discount on the 10th). Saved almost $30.
It’s my mothers bday today and I am offering her money towards either a massage or a trip to her country-of-origin which she has been dreaming of. Not as frugal as I could be but also not adding to material clutter either way (plus, she is almost 80 and I want her to experience these things while she can)
*update--she refused the gift saying she didn't need anything and that I should save it myself in case I can go with her
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well, I made my first spend on a non food item in 2023. I lasted a whole 16 days, and then succumbed to the eBay purchase of a Raclette grill.... so that we can make grilled cheesy goodness at home, but yea, it was $100 I didn't *have* to spend. Although I sat on the idea for a while, and did research other options, including whether we could DIY it on our pancake griddle.
Lol, my mustachian brain interpreted this as you didn’t have the money to spend, but did it anyway. Pretty sure that's not the case ;-)
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Two more purchases, in the realm of necessary and food. I ordered a box of 300 lens wipes (the last box was purchased almost 3 years ago) and I ordered our Valentine's chocolate (a case of Tony's Chocolonely bars) because I could cover part of it with an Amazon gift card, I wanted to order while the weather is cold, I like to have it way in advance in case it is out of stock at V-Day, and also because I ate a mini Tony's chocolate bar I thought DH didn't want and he asked about it yesterday -- oops! A case is 15 bars but that is the way to get the lowest price per bar, and we'll share a bar each Sunday for a few months.
But really I'm just humming along, enjoying the break from shopping and buying, and I've realized I don't need to update the budget daily when we're hardly spending any money.
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well, I made my first spend on a non food item in 2023. I lasted a whole 16 days, and then succumbed to the eBay purchase of a Raclette grill.... so that we can make grilled cheesy goodness at home, but yea, it was $100 I didn't *have* to spend. Although I sat on the idea for a while, and did research other options, including whether we could DIY it on our pancake griddle.
Lol, my mustachian brain interpreted this as you didn’t have the money to spend, but did it anyway. Pretty sure that's not the case ;-)
LOL yea, I had the money, I just was trying to pad the bank account instead of feed the consumption brain.... Alas, I failed, but I did buy used, and I also did think on it a bit.... so,... still a fail, but could have been worse.
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I have never heard of a Raclette grill. But since I love love love grilled cheese sandwiches, I am refusing to Google it in order to avoid temptation. Maybe next year!
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I have never heard of a Raclette grill. But since I love love love grilled cheese sandwiches, I am refusing to Google it in order to avoid temptation. Maybe next year!
I took one for the team and looked. Meh.
Sorry, @Weisass, it doesn't tempt me at all. Of course, I don't know which version you bought, but where the hell would I store it?
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Mostly good so far this year, other than food, I did end up making an impulse purchase, but it was such a good deal that I’m happy to break the challenge to make an exception. Was a used gas-powered Honda snowblower that was posted on marketplace as-is for $30. I’m pretty handy with equipment and I got it running in 10 minutes with nothing but a carb clean and some new fuel. It works pretty awesome now, so I’m debating whether to keep it or not, identical ones in good running shape are $300-400, but it made short work of my driveway and I don’t have much money in it.
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Mostly good so far this year, other than food, I did end up making an impulse purchase, but it was such a good deal that I’m happy to break the challenge to make an exception. Was a used gas-powered Honda snowblower that was posted on marketplace as-is for $30. I’m pretty handy with equipment and I got it running in 10 minutes with nothing but a carb clean and some new fuel. It works pretty awesome now, so I’m debating whether to keep it or not, identical ones in good running shape are $300-400, but it made short work of my driveway and I don’t have much money in it.
That's awesome! I'd vote for keeping it.
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Im currently a nomad so every time I buy something I have to get rid of something else to free up space for luggage. Which means that I buy very little other than food and consumables.
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Mostly good so far this year, other than food, I did end up making an impulse purchase, but it was such a good deal that I’m happy to break the challenge to make an exception. Was a used gas-powered Honda snowblower that was posted on marketplace as-is for $30. I’m pretty handy with equipment and I got it running in 10 minutes with nothing but a carb clean and some new fuel. It works pretty awesome now, so I’m debating whether to keep it or not, identical ones in good running shape are $300-400, but it made short work of my driveway and I don’t have much money in it.
That's awesome! I'd vote for keeping it.
I’m kind of leaning towards using it for the rest of the winter and see how much I really get out of keeping it, and then if i decide to sell it I’ll have the summer to give it a good cleaning and list it in mid-late fall for maximum dollar
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I have never heard of a Raclette grill. But since I love love love grilled cheese sandwiches, I am refusing to Google it in order to avoid temptation. Maybe next year!
Since the traditional method was just to heat some cheese over a fire, you can certain get your raclette on without the grill. I haven't tried it at home, but there are lots of suggested methods floating around, e.g. https://cookthestory.com/raclette/
FWIW I've had it both with the little grill, and done the more traditional way (hot cheese scraped directly from the wheel), and I personally prefer the latter. But of course the former is more convenient and possibly less messy.
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I have never heard of a Raclette grill. But since I love love love grilled cheese sandwiches, I am refusing to Google it in order to avoid temptation. Maybe next year!
I took one for the team and looked. Meh.
Sorry, @Weisass, it doesn't tempt me at all. Of course, I don't know which version you bought, but where the hell would I store it?
I’m personally planning to store it in one of the many cabinets in my kitchen that aren’t full of crap, because I don’t buy a bunch of useless stuff 😉
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I have never heard of a Raclette grill. But since I love love love grilled cheese sandwiches, I am refusing to Google it in order to avoid temptation. Maybe next year!
I took one for the team and looked. Meh.
Sorry, @Weisass, it doesn't tempt me at all. Of course, I don't know which version you bought, but where the hell would I store it?
I’m personally planning to store it in one of the many cabinets in my kitchen that aren’t full of crap, because I don’t buy a bunch of useless stuff 😉
I don't buy a bunch of crap either, and a huge percentage of what I have is second hand, including Breville, All-Clad, Calphalon,etc. I just cook every damn meal at home and have somehow managed to fill my cupboards with quality gear. When the Bonus Kid moves out and I'm no longer cooking for four adults, I'm going to purge the shit out of my house. The whole house, not just the kitchen.
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One thing I’m liking so far about this challenge is that a bit of time has been freed up. Any time normally spent browsing websites or on a thrift-store mission has been redirected towards yoga (at home), reading or art-making. Funny that I’m already noticing this and we’re not even three weeks in :)
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Ok, I slipped up again today, went to a liquidation place that was having a big sale, only planned to look for essentials, need some bigger clothes for our kid, but ended up spotting a really nice winter jacket for pretty cheap and got it. Wasn’t really a need, I’ve got plenty of clothing and jackets, just not a jacket in this style. I vow not to slip up for at least the rest of the month.
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I have never heard of a Raclette grill. But since I love love love grilled cheese sandwiches, I am refusing to Google it in order to avoid temptation. Maybe next year!
I took one for the team and looked. Meh.
Sorry, @Weisass, it doesn't tempt me at all. Of course, I don't know which version you bought, but where the hell would I store it?
I’m personally planning to store it in one of the many cabinets in my kitchen that aren’t full of crap, because I don’t buy a bunch of useless stuff 😉
I don't buy a bunch of crap either, and a huge percentage of what I have is second hand, including Breville, All-Clad, Calphalon,etc. I just cook every damn meal at home and have somehow managed to fill my cupboards with quality gear. When the Bonus Kid moves out and I'm no longer cooking for four adults, I'm going to purge the shit out of my house. The whole house, not just the kitchen.
Oh man you and I clearly speak the same language…
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Well, the decision was made today to finally buy some Souper Cubes for food storage. It was either buy these (or something like them) or buy something else to freeze stock, soups, leftovers, etc. in. I've been using repurposed quart containers from yogurt, but they only last so long with the freezing and thawing (especially the lids), and now that we haven't bought yogurt for a long time, my supply of containers has dried up (to be honest I only had about 6, plus a few Daisy sour cream containers). I don't freeze in glass, in part because my family breaks the jars when they dig through the freezer, but also because I can't pop out frozen stock from a mason jar. We'd already decided that we will be choosing silicone over plastic for most kitchen applications for which glass isn't applicable. (Which reminds me that I need to put Stasher-style bags on my allowed buy list for 2023, for when we finish the plastic storage bags we already have. I plan to keep track of how ofter we use bags and in which sizes, so I can get an idea of how many we might need.)
I feel like this was a grey area purchase. If I were purchasing deli-type containers they would probably just be considered the same as buying foil or plastic bags, and I wouldn't even be thinking they weren't an approved purchase. Plus, as a couple of other posters have written, I cook all of our meals at home everyday, from scratch, with the exception of a 1-2 meals out monthly for special occasions such as extended family birthdays. For 2023 we committed to coming up with at home solutions for those times when the day goes sideways and we still need to eat, which is one reason I'm freezing more cooked meals. At the same time, they do cost a lot more than just buying deli-style freezer containers (in part because they are safer than plastic, more environmentally sound than plastic, and last longer than plastic).
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At the [mostly Costco returns] scratch and dent store, they had sets of silicone food storage bags that stand up on their own and have zip-loch closures. They were about $52. It seemed insanely expensive, but still intriguing. Since I'm doing this challenge, I resisted. Also, I had never seen them at Costco, so I had no idea if the asking price was a significant reduction. Had they been less expensive, I might have caved, for all the excellent reasons you cited.
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I had to Google souper cubes. Never heard of them before. How are they different from silicone ice cube trays? Some ice cube trays come with lids and are less expensive than Souper Cubes.
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I had to Google souper cubes. Never heard of them before. How are they different from silicone ice cube trays? Some ice cube trays come with lids and are less expensive than Souper Cubes.
I think they are different in that they are have embedded steel frames to reinforce them, and come in various sizes. When they arrive I'll be able to tell if the silicone is thicker, as advertised. I was definitely looking for the larger portion trays rather than ice cube trays. I did have a coupon code for the Souper Cubes, and got the trays that freeze in 2 cup, 1 cup, 1/2 cup, and 2 T. portions. Like I said, it feels kind of grey area, but I did need something to freeze stock and other liquids in.
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At the [mostly Costco returns] scratch and dent store, they had sets of silicone food storage bags that stand up on their own and have zip-loch closures. They were about $52. It seemed insanely expensive, but still intriguing. Since I'm doing this challenge, I resisted. Also, I had never seen them at Costco, so I had no idea if the asking price was a significant reduction. Had they been less expensive, I might have caved, for all the excellent reasons you cited.
They do seem insanely expensive to me as well, so I'm going to experiment with just 1-2 bags before we run out of Ziplocs. We've already switched away from most disposables (while we rewash the sturdier zipper bags if they haven't held meat, they do end up being disposable). I really think I'll only need them for freezer storage and travel, as we use glass for most everything else. Glass in the RV fridge turns out not to be so great, except in the door and separated by non glass items.
Edited to add: Since you mentioned Costco, I looked and they don't have them, but Sam's Club has a set of 7 for $30. They aren't Stasher brand, but are the higher end "platinum" silicone. So now the question is do I buy them from Sam's Club to try out? They will be a need later this year, but aren't right now.
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At the [mostly Costco returns] scratch and dent store, they had sets of silicone food storage bags that stand up on their own and have zip-loch closures. They were about $52. It seemed insanely expensive, but still intriguing. Since I'm doing this challenge, I resisted. Also, I had never seen them at Costco, so I had no idea if the asking price was a significant reduction. Had they been less expensive, I might have caved, for all the excellent reasons you cited.
They do seem insanely expensive to me as well, so I'm going to experiment with just 1-2 bags before we run out of Ziplocs. We've already switched away from most disposables (while we rewash the sturdier zipper bags if they haven't held meat, they do end up being disposable). I really think I'll only need them for freezer storage and travel, as we use glass for most everything else. Glass in the RV fridge turns out not to be so great, except in the door and separated by non glass items.
Edited to add: Since you mentioned Costco, I looked and they don't have them, but Sam's Club has a set of 7 for $30. They aren't Stasher brand, but are the higher end "platinum" silicone. So now the question is do I buy them from Sam's Club to try out? They will be a need later this year, but aren't right now.
OMG, I have so many plastic bags which I wash and re-use, there's no way I can justify these. I do think it's a great idea to try just a few first. Funny, I've been having good luck with Pyrex glass dishes for the RV. I got a screaming deal on some small and medium covered rectangles. I was looking to buy lids for the ones I have and the whole set was cheaper than just a few lids. Anyway, I batch cook lasagne, stuffed shells and some of Metalcat's awesome recipes and freeze them. They fit well and help keep the freezer cold. Of course, it's just two of us, so the small dishes are plenty for dinner for two. You have more hungry eaters to feed.
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OMG, I have so many plastic bags which I wash and re-use, there's no way I can justify these. I do think it's a great idea to try just a few first. Funny, I've been having good luck with Pyrex glass dishes for the RV. I got a screaming deal on some small and medium covered rectangles. I was looking to buy lids for the ones I have and the whole set was cheaper than just a few lids. Anyway, I batch cook lasagne, stuffed shells and some of Metalcat's awesome recipes and freeze them. They fit well and help keep the freezer cold. Of course, it's just two of us, so the small dishes are plenty for dinner for two. You have more hungry eaters to feed.
I got my hands on an on-sale Stasher bag to check it out, and it's a no-go for me. The seal looks incredibly hard to keep clean, and you can't turn them inside out to dry. Eventually I'll start looking for other options, but I'm not going to bother now while I still have various zipper seal bags, as well as vacuum seal bags for meat and sous vide. The Stasher bag is going back to Amazon.
For short trips I do like the Snapware Pyrex in the RV fridge, and I feel like the lids help prevent the glass containers from banging into each other, but for longer trips they just take up too much space. We'll get to a place where we need to restock the fridge and have all of these empty containers we're carrying around inside the fridge because the camper van is so tight on space. Zipper seal bags work really well in the RV, and then we repurpose them as dog waste bags.
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Yesterday, I met up with three Forum Friends for a tour of the Condo Conversion. Three of us then went to lunch. It cost a shocking $30 each and was worth every penny. (The forth person couldn't stay for lunch, because they had other v. badass mustachian plans.)
Meeting Forum Friends IRL is a worthwhile endeavor, which I highly recommend.
Note: this meetup happened on the fly. Going to a restaurant was the most expedient option, given the logistics. I'm just shocked at food prices because I rarely eat out, and because I'm doing this challenge. Have I mentioned it was totally worth it?
Back on the wagon today.
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Yesterday, I met up with three Forum Friends for a tour of the Condo Conversion. Three of us then went to lunch. It cost a shocking $30 each and was worth every penny. (The forth person couldn't stay for lunch, because they had other v. badass mustachian plans.)
Meeting Forum Friends IRL is a worthwhile endeavor, which I highly recommend.
Note: this meetup happened on the fly. Going to a restaurant was the most expedient option, given the logistics. I'm just shocked at food prices because I rarely eat out, and because I'm doing this challenge. Have I mentioned it was totally worth it?
Back on the wagon today.
How fantastic for you to be able to meet up with forum members!
I'm likewise astounded by restaurant prices. We've eaten three restaurant meals this month, all planned. First was Thai takeout with college kid #1 before he headed back to school. That was $70 (including 10% tip) and fed 3 of us one meal, 2 of us a second meal, and 1 of us a third meal. DH and I went to a casual sit down restaurant for an anniversary, and each got a fancy burger and fries, water to drink, and that was $47 with tip. Becoming more aware of the price of restaurant meals, we planned a birthday dinner for a family member at a fast casual restaurant that serves fish (birthday person doesn't eat meat), and that was $85 (no tip) for 6 people, with two people choosing a bowl of clam chowder versus a full meal, and everyone drinking water. But as you say, it was worth it for the experience. Next month doesn't have any meals planned out, but I do have it penciled in that it would be okay to do lunch with friends once. That ends up being spontaneous, but I plan for it, if that makes sense.
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Had my first *almost* slip-up when I found myself looking up a book that I heard an artist mention in a lecture.
Thankfully, my local bookstore can't bring it in and I try not to buy from Amazon, so when I saw that they were my option--it helped remind me why I am doing this challenge. I don't need more.
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I had planned on buying some baskets for a home organization project, but decided to try the thrift and antique stores first. I'm glad to say I found 3 large baskets that were well made and spent less than I would have at Wal-Mart or Target. I also felt better buying used as I'm not supporting made in China or unethical labor practices of producing more mass quantity goods.
Downside is the antique store is next door to a local homemade ice cream shop; I bought a quart of decadent ice cream to put in our freezer.
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Had my first *almost* slip-up when I found myself looking up a book that I heard an artist mention in a lecture.
Thankfully, my local bookstore can't bring it in and I try not to buy from Amazon, so when I saw that they were my option--it helped remind me why I am doing this challenge. I don't need more.
Trying not to buy from Amazon sounds like a good strategy to create a pause before buying a book.
I think books are the item I'm most likely to slip up on. So far I haven't bought any, but already I've had two books personally recommended to me, in addition to all the books that grab my attention through other means, and I realized I didn't make a proviso for the potential book club my small group has been thinking about starting.
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PTF
I just found this thread, but I'm already doing the Uber Frugal Month challenge for January, so I'll join this and try to continue for the rest of the year. My goal is to not buy anything for myself this year except necessities (mortgage, car payment, food, insurance, etc.) I have plenty of clothes and shoes already and don't NEED anything off Amazon. I've already purchased a ticket for a music festival in September, so I won't count what I spend there. (I'm already saving money from my part-time job for this.)
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Had my first *almost* slip-up when I found myself looking up a book that I heard an artist mention in a lecture.
Thankfully, my local bookstore can't bring it in and I try not to buy from Amazon, so when I saw that they were my option--it helped remind me why I am doing this challenge. I don't need more.
Trying not to buy from Amazon sounds like a good strategy to create a pause before buying a book.
I think books are the item I'm most likely to slip up on. So far I haven't bought any, but already I've had two books personally recommended to me, in addition to all the books that grab my attention through other means, and I realized I didn't make a proviso for the potential book club my small group has been thinking about starting.
I agree..books are the big thing for me but since I have access to a wonderful library and a bookshelf full of unread books at home, I really need to practice restraint :) I will give myself some leeway IF my bookclub picks a book that I can't access by borrowing..
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I ordered 3 items off Amazon last night, and I'm all in a froth deciding if I should cancel the order or just let it happen.
Want to come on the saga?
1. I have a legitimate need for a stopwatch. A traditional stopwatch, with 3 buttons and hangs on a string. I checked Target and Walmart, but there aren't any local stopwatches. The obvious solution is Amazon. $8.99
2. I have a kind-of need for a padded sleeve to velcro over a car seatbelt, to protect my poor post-surgical chest from the seatbelt rubbing. $15,99
Late last night, after lying in bed and reviewing my life instead of sleeping, I hopped on Amazon on my phone and ordered items 1 & 2. The total was $0.02 short of qualifying for free shipping. So I threw in:
3. A kind-of need for a thingum to attach an AirTag to a dog harness.
Today, I added the $40 to my tracking spreadsheet, then sighed about how many entries there are, considering I've just launched a selective buying year of "no stuff." The brain circles. I need the two things. But do I need the third thing? No. But it's dumb to pay shipping over $0.02. But I could make the seatbelt thing out of a towel, it's dumb to buy something that will be obsolete in 3 months. But it's dumb to pay $6 shipping on a $9 item!
Update! I typed out the first sentence, and got to the word "need," and canceled the seatbelt pad and AirTag tracker. The only actual need is the stopwatch. $15.99 including shipping.
THEN! I thought to look at Dick's Sporting Goods, and they have stopwatches in stock. $14.99, instead of $8.99. Still saving a dollar, and only getting what I need.
tl;dr = self-justification really is a sneaky little jerk.
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I ordered 3 items off Amazon last night, and I'm all in a froth deciding if I should cancel the order or just let it happen.
Want to come on the saga?
1. I have a legitimate need for a stopwatch. A traditional stopwatch, with 3 buttons and hangs on a string. I checked Target and Walmart, but there aren't any local stopwatches. The obvious solution is Amazon. $8.99
2. I have a kind-of need for a padded sleeve to velcro over a car seatbelt, to protect my poor post-surgical chest from the seatbelt rubbing. $15,99
Late last night, after lying in bed and reviewing my life instead of sleeping, I hopped on Amazon on my phone and ordered items 1 & 2. The total was $0.02 short of qualifying for free shipping. So I threw in:
3. A kind-of need for a thingum to attach an AirTag to a dog harness.
Today, I added the $40 to my tracking spreadsheet, then sighed about how many entries there are, considering I've just launched a selective buying year of "no stuff." The brain circles. I need the two things. But do I need the third thing? No. But it's dumb to pay shipping over $0.02. But I could make the seatbelt thing out of a towel, it's dumb to buy something that will be obsolete in 3 months. But it's dumb to pay $6 shipping on a $9 item!
Update! I typed out the first sentence, and got to the word "need," and canceled the seatbelt pad and AirTag tracker. The only actual need is the stopwatch. $15.99 including shipping.
THEN! I thought to look at Dick's Sporting Goods, and they have stopwatches in stock. $14.99, instead of $8.99. Still saving a dollar, and only getting what I need.
tl;dr = self-justification really is a sneaky little jerk.
This is the sort of self examination that having a quarantine period for your Amazon cart helps with, in my experience! Time really helps me separate whether I really need something or am just trying to convince myself in the moment.
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DH gave me some adorable slippers for Christmas that were just a bit too small. I ordered the right size on line with free shipping if sent to the store. The online offer was $10 less than the store, so when I exchanged them, I got $10+ tax back in cash. In the same trip, I took my 98-year-old friend, so we could drive her car since it doesn't get driven much at freeway speeds. She wanted to go to the nearby Dollar Tree. I bought two food items and 2 Valentines for $3.85 total. I'm calling it a win.
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Last night I hosted bookclub (we rotate hosting between 10 people, so about once a year) so I spent extra cash on groceries (lasagna/caesar salad/foccaccia), kombucha (for the non-drinkers), lilies for the house and vino. Everything was technically within my 'grocery' allowance but it felt extravagant nonetheless.
Funny how quickly my baseline is shifting towards lower spending.
I even picked up an extension on my shift at work tonight to cover some of the costs :)
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I ended up with an unexpected extra expense this week. Managed to catch the outdoor cat which had been hanging around for about a year, so he's now been snipped. Also sprung for rabies shot and antibiotic shot because he seems to have some sort of infection.
Right now he's quarantining on an enclosed porch to recover out of the arctic blasts we've been having this week. So far he's not showing any inclination to turn into a house cat, so may end up a TNR situation back into my yard. The vet did give me the feral cat rescue price, and his ear has been clipped so folks can recognize from a distance that he's fixed.
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January Review!
- I bought 3 physical presents for friends
- I bought 4 physical things to help me recover from surgery - paper tape, silicone tape, compression vest, and laxatives (yay, pooping!)
- I went to a coffee shop 9 times, and bought 3 seasons of a TV show to stream. Yeah, don't come after me, Bueller. SURGERY.
- I used about 70 gallons of gas and paid $50 in tolls, mostly driving from Charlotte to Boston, yikes.
- I spent 2 nights in a hotel, and ate 5 meals on the road.
- I went to the grocery store 8 (eight!) times, and to the specialty spice store once.
- I mailed two packages.
- I got my haircut once; bought one toaster oven (to replace the one I, whoops, melted) and one Kindle book; had one restaurant dinner; got my car washed after getting back from Charlotte; and paid for a couple 12-month subscriptions.
Not very frugal, or very minimal, but 90% of the extravaganza was during the week I was in Charlotte, plus the 3 days driving back. My will and courage remain strong!
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i did ok for the month. did waste some $ on groceries ("junk food") that i don't normally eat. i've been working ot for about the last 10 months now and am over it so there were times i didn't feel like cooking.
this is my last week with ot so i'm going to make better choices for feb.
jan spending :
groceries - $184
gas - $32
ebay - $20 for a chest light for running and i hate it (which i thought i might) so that's why i bought a cheap one
running store - $63 for a water bottle and sunglasses
total- $299
i resisted buying running shoes bc i really don't need any. i am going to buy a headlamp for running eventually.
goal for feb spending is $200 or less
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I ended up with an unexpected extra expense this week. Managed to catch the outdoor cat which had been hanging around for about a year, so he's now been snipped. Also sprung for rabies shot and antibiotic shot because he seems to have some sort of infection.
Right now he's quarantining on an enclosed porch to recover out of the arctic blasts we've been having this week. So far he's not showing any inclination to turn into a house cat, so may end up a TNR situation back into my yard. The vet did give me the feral cat rescue price, and his ear has been clipped so folks can recognize from a distance that he's fixed.
thank you so much for doing that for this cat to make his life better.
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January recap, I bought a winter jacket that was more of a want than a need, as well as the Honda Snowblower that was too good of a deal to pass on. Other than that, it was all normal grocery and gas and spending on things that were needs for the family. Probably going to fix up the snowblower over the summer as it could use some servicing and some touch up paint that won’t stick in these temperatures, then sell in the fall.
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I ended up with an unexpected extra expense this week. Managed to catch the outdoor cat which had been hanging around for about a year, so he's now been snipped. Also sprung for rabies shot and antibiotic shot because he seems to have some sort of infection.
Right now he's quarantining on an enclosed porch to recover out of the arctic blasts we've been having this week. So far he's not showing any inclination to turn into a house cat, so may end up a TNR situation back into my yard. The vet did give me the feral cat rescue price, and his ear has been clipped so folks can recognize from a distance that he's fixed.
thank you so much for doing that for this cat to make his life better.
One of the two indoor cats I've got now started out as an outdoor cat who hung around my back door. Fortunately we don't get many in my neighborhood or it might be an even bigger impact on the budget.
I realized after I posted that this could just as well have gone in the Good Deed for the Day thread.
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@Turtle —a good deed AND a worthy spend. Lucky cats to have you around :)
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Nicely done everybody!
I managed to get through January with minimal buys besides the groceries (as previously mentioned)—really only picked up books which were ordered in 2022 and a glue stick.
Already noticed an uptick in savings and decrease in time-spent-browsing things online.
Started a travel fund, a root canal fund and my tax fund. One month and it has already made a difference..
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We did really well. Looking over the accounts, the only unnecessary item purchased was my quarterly liturgical calendar posters that I have on subscription and totally forgot about. I'm not inclined to cancel the subscription, and as such will add them to my allowed list.
Other than grocery items (food/toiletries/cleaning/paper products), we bought:
:: plumbing parts to fix where the adolescent dog chewed/broke a spigot off a PVC pipe
:: a cord reel for Christmas lights to replace one that broke
:: a bolt of Insul Bright, which I wrote about in a previous post
:: silicone freezer containers, which I wrote about in a previous post
:: silicone storage bags, in process of being returned
:: a box of fire logs
:: parking for an event
:: DH's annual Strava renewal
:: Patreon donations in the amount of $6
:: the aforementioned liturgical posters
:: our annual xml tv listings subscription (used to be able to record over the air digital channels)
:: a $4 Nintendo game download
:: a rug and pad for the dining room, to provide a place for our senior dog with degenerative myelitis to rest comfortably when we are in the front of the house and to be able to stand back up (can't get traction on the wood floors)
:: two fence boards and a box of nails to fix the gap in the back fence created by the rear corner neighbor when they replaced their fence -- sure, their big dog couldn't get through it, but my little dog could. I don't know why they left a gap (especially since they used our fence post for their last section of fencing) -- maybe they ran out of boards -- but it was easier to fix than complain.
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We were mediocre. Ate out or got take out five times this month — once was for DD’s play date, once was to celebrate Chinese New Year, once was to celebrate our friend’s engagement, and twice were just cuz we felt like it.
Next month, I could work on reducing the amount of snacks we buy.
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Just ran across this thread. I want to do a zero discretionary spend for 90 days. Will probably try it soon :)
I only have a few more days to go for my 1 year $0 fast/convenience/dining food spend. I have no problem though buying non-discretionary items when needed though: e.g. shoes/clothing.. but I don’t spend more than say $100 per year on clothing.
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Nope, I love buying stuff
My problem exactly.
Ok, I’ve given it some thought and I’m in for buy (almost) nothing 2023. A couple exceptions though, anything I buy for the purpose to resell (for example I buy an antique from a garage sale that I then sell online, not that I do that very often but it can happen), as well as anything I buy for myself that I actually use to make money (for example I just recently found a deal on a used tree pruning saw, which I will definitely use to tackle the odd side job). Other than that I’m going to try not to buy anything for myself. I should be good for personal clothes and work clothes and shoes for the year, and I definitely don’t need to be buying other stuff. Let the savings begin!
Buying stuff for less than u can sell it for is not an expense but a transfer of assets from cash to say “inventory” in business. When I buy say a cell phone used for say $250 and know I’ll use it for say 18 months and approximate I’ll get $150 for it then, I expense $100 into Expenses:Phone:Depreciation and add $150 to my fixed assets balance. So my expense for that month are only $100.
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Good work @JenniferW on almost reaching your 1 year goal of no-eating-out :)
My non-buying is limited to physical things (not a set limit for groceries/eating out) but since I’m now doing a pantry challenge for Feb—things are starting to feel much more Mustachian!
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Today I was thinking about Valentine's Day, and I really wanted to buy a heart shaped cake pan or mini heart shaped cupcake pans, but after a couple of minutes of looking I closed the browser tab and resolved to use what I have. I could make a heart by combining a square cake and round cake, but that's more cake than we need. The whole idea came to me because college kid #2 is in charge of planning a Valentine's date and needs to do so frugally, and I thought it would be nice to help come up with food ideas. DH and I don't care if our Valentine's dessert is heart shaped or not, lol -- I'm actually planning a surprise pie (see below) for our dessert.
So far in February I've purchased vacuum sealer bags and black pens (both needed). I thrifted a small pie plate that I went looking for intentionally, as I only have huge 10" deep dish pie plates and those are too big for two people, and I want to make DH a pie for Valentine's Day. While thrifting I also bought a ravioli maker ($9.98), as making ravioli is one of my 2023 goals and now that I've learned to make and roll the pasta dough, ravioli is the next step, a 2 cup measuring cup (for the dog's food) for $1.99 because DH had been asking for one and I finally came across one, and a completely unnecessary Sandra Boynton board book for 99¢ (Snuggle Puppy). Children's books are a weakness of mine, which is kind of funny since my kids are young adults and I don't know that I'll ever have grandchildren. But I do have a bin of toys for visiting children, as well as a small library of children's books, including several board books for little ones.
Buying the book reminded me of another exception I intend to grant myself. My local thrift store does 10¢ books at the end of the end of each month, and it's been almost a year since I've been to one of the sales. I mostly look for interesting cookbooks and for high quality children's books, and I also look for children's books that I can put into the Little Free Library. I'm hoping to put up a Little Free Library of my own this year, and had planned to shop the 10¢ sale days to help stock it.
I also give myself permission to shop the quarterly library fundraising book sales and the monthly bag sales. Hmm, maybe I should just give myself permission to shop for used books and give myself a budget, lol.
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I was going to say that I failed miserably in Jan because I bought several pieces of clothing for work. I went back to the office for the first time since 2019 last week!
I ended up really thinking about the items and returned all but two of them. I kept a pair of nice jeans (because I don't want to wear obviously patched jeans to the office) and a blouse. I am a clothes minimalist by nature and I have worked mostly remotely for over a decade. It has become very hard to distinguish need from want when it comes to clothing. But I realized I hadn't bought a new blouse since 2019 (and I hadn't bought a long sleeved blouse since 2017!) so I kept one that was particularly flattering.
I did have to throw away a pair of boots. My husband bought them for me in 2009 and the style had just come back into fashion. I wore them to the office and the faux leather in the calf basically disintegrated as I was pulling them off when I got home. I think I can get through the rest of the winter without a new pair - fingers crossed!
ETA - I have spent approximately 15 dollars on my daughter's latest school project and another $12 for a Sunday school thing. There is only so much time to source free/cheap materials in my busy life :).
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Today I was thinking about Valentine's Day, and I really wanted to buy a heart shaped cake pan or mini heart shaped cupcake pans, but after a couple of minutes of looking I closed the browser tab and resolved to use what I have. I could make a heart by combining a square cake and round cake, but that's more cake than we need. The whole idea came to me because college kid #2 is in charge of planning a Valentine's date and needs to do so frugally, and I thought it would be nice to help come up with food ideas. DH and I don't care if our Valentine's dessert is heart shaped or not, lol -- I'm actually planning a surprise pie (see below) for our dessert.
So far in February I've purchased vacuum sealer bags and black pens (both needed). I thrifted a small pie plate that I went looking for intentionally, as I only have huge 10" deep dish pie plates and those are too big for two people, and I want to make DH a pie for Valentine's Day. While thrifting I also bought a ravioli maker ($9.98), as making ravioli is one of my 2023 goals and now that I've learned to make and roll the pasta dough, ravioli is the next step, a 2 cup measuring cup (for the dog's food) for $1.99 because DH had been asking for one and I finally came across one, and a completely unnecessary Sandra Boynton board book for 99¢ (Snuggle Puppy). Children's books are a weakness of mine, which is kind of funny since my kids are young adults and I don't know that I'll ever have grandchildren. But I do have a bin of toys for visiting children, as well as a small library of children's books, including several board books for little ones.
Buying the book reminded me of another exception I intend to grant myself. My local thrift store does 10¢ books at the end of the end of each month, and it's been almost a year since I've been to one of the sales. I mostly look for interesting cookbooks and for high quality children's books, and I also look for children's books that I can put into the Little Free Library. I'm hoping to put up a Little Free Library of my own this year, and had planned to shop the 10¢ sale days to help stock it.
I also give myself permission to shop the quarterly library fundraising book sales and the monthly bag sales. Hmm, maybe I should just give myself permission to shop for used books and give myself a budget, lol.
I don't know about where you live, but where I am, one of hte local libraries has a cake pan collection, and you can check them out to use, and then return. I wonder whether something like that exists around you, or perhaps buy nothing might offer an option?
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Today I was thinking about Valentine's Day, and I really wanted to buy a heart shaped cake pan or mini heart shaped cupcake pans, but after a couple of minutes of looking I closed the browser tab and resolved to use what I have.
I don't know about where you live, but where I am, one of hte local libraries has a cake pan collection, and you can check them out to use, and then return. I wonder whether something like that exists around you, or perhaps buy nothing might offer an option?
This is an excellent suggestion! Unfortunately, I checked my city library and the county system and neither of them does that.
However, your suggestion reminded me that I do have a pineapple upside down cakelet pan, so I'm going to float that idea out to my kid.
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Today I was thinking about Valentine's Day, and I really wanted to buy a heart shaped cake pan
Dang I just gave away four cake pans, locally. One of them was heart shaped. If you were local and I knew you needed one I would of gave it to you. I don't bake cakes anymore since I'm diabetic. I had bought the pan for 50 cents if I recall, from flea market some years ago.
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Nope, I love buying stuff
My problem exactly.
Ok, I’ve given it some thought and I’m in for buy (almost) nothing 2023. A couple exceptions though, anything I buy for the purpose to resell (for example I buy an antique from a garage sale that I then sell online, not that I do that very often but it can happen), as well as anything I buy for myself that I actually use to make money (for example I just recently found a deal on a used tree pruning saw, which I will definitely use to tackle the odd side job). Other than that I’m going to try not to buy anything for myself. I should be good for personal clothes and work clothes and shoes for the year, and I definitely don’t need to be buying other stuff. Let the savings begin!
Buying stuff for less than u can sell it for is not an expense but a transfer of assets from cash to say “inventory” in business. When I buy say a cell phone used for say $250 and know I’ll use it for say 18 months and approximate I’ll get $150 for it then, I expense $100 into Expenses:Phone:Depreciation and add $150 to my fixed assets balance. So my expense for that month are only $100.
Yeah that’s basically how I’ve been viewing it, although I never really sat down and did the accounting work for it. I really love to find deals on stuff, but I’ve been passing on a lot of deals lately to try to reduce my impulsiveness.
So far this month I let my wife finally talk me into buying a new, much nicer kitchen knife set, we’ve been using a set of fairly cheap and beat up knives we put together from garage sales etc for almost nothing for the last 12 years. She spotted a new set that was 85% off and seemed like a deal, so we gave in. I also bought a few tools at auction I didn’t explicitly need, but they might be useful at some point and it was definitely a deal. So not the greatest start to Feb, but I have been passing on a lot of things and really trying curb my habits
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^Better knives are allowed. Crappy knives are actually dangerous.
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^Better knives are allowed. Crappy knives are actually dangerous.
Totally agree!
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^Better knives are allowed. Crappy knives are actually dangerous.
Totally agree!
Plus once you buy good knives you're done for the rest of your life. We bought a set of Zwilling Pro S knives 30 years ago and still use them everyday.
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^Better knives are allowed. Crappy knives are actually dangerous.
Haha, so actually funny story, a few months ago I got up early in the morning as usual and started getting breakfast and lunch ready for myself for later in the day as well as lunch to send with DD to school, I was a bit tired and I don’t remember what I was cutting but I grabbed a crappy knife that I knew doesn’t cut well anymore and when it didn’t cut properly I slammed my other hand onto the back of the knife to force it through… or so I thought. Turns out I was cutting with the wrong side because I was still a little groggy and slammed my hand down onto the blade. Kinda good thing it wasn’t razor sharp, but also I never would have done that if I wasn’t used to it being a useless piece of garbage to begin with. Got lucky it did almost no damage to my hand. I absolutely will not be doing that without double checking now that we have new knives
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@K_in_the_kitchen could you arrange cupcakes in a heart shape and frost them together?! I see that all over social media. Leftover cupcakes are then easy to freeze for later.
Today I was thinking about Valentine's Day, and I really wanted to buy a heart shaped cake pan
Dang I just gave away four cake pans, locally. One of them was heart shaped. If you were local and I knew you needed one I would of gave it to you. I don't bake cakes anymore since I'm diabetic. I had bought the pan for 50 cents if I recall, from flea market some years ago.
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Today I was thinking about Valentine's Day, and I really wanted to buy a heart shaped cake pan or mini heart shaped cupcake pans, but after a couple of minutes of looking I closed the browser tab and resolved to use what I have.
YouTube has a few videos on how to make heart shaped cake out of round cake pan. Looks simple and definitely heart like! This method requires icing to stick the cut out parts and icing to cover on top.. so if you were planning to make a non-icing cake, this wouldn't work.
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Ay carumba @JAYSLOL --that could've been really painful.
So far doing well nothing bought outside of my guidelines (because I did buy tickets for my mother & I to travel but that was anticipated and even welcomed)..
This challenge is turning out to be perfectly timed since I have the trip coming up in June and met with a dental specialist yesterday who confirmed that I need a root canal (with no dental coverage)...so I'm thankful that I've been keeping ALL my spending in check.
Means that I'm not feeling stressed about these other high costs which are coming up. And still not feeling any sense of lack or want, which makes it much easier.
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I do appreciate the cupcake idea as well as the one to make a larger heart shaped cake by combining a square and a round. However, this was intended as a dessert for two people (college kid #2 and partner) and has to be gluten free. I've moved on from working on how to help make a dessert, as college kid #2 isn't showing any initiative. I'm already cooking dinner for them (I offered), and I've decided to let college kid #2 figure out dessert without me. I'll be making a gluten-full dessert for DH and I, lol.
One thing this challenge is reminding me of is how much I love to cook, bake, and decorate for holidays, special days, feast days, and liturgical seasons. Yesterday I decorated for St. Valentine's Day, and remembered that I'd been interested in buying pink twinkle lights last year but didn't think of it in time. Because of the challenge this year I didn't even look at buying them. Then I wanted pink taper candles because I've burned all of my red and white candles and only have unbleached beeswax tapers which don't look nice in the pink candle holders. I did look at those online, but then decided that for this year I should make do with what I have and remember to get pink beeswax tapers when I do my yearly candle order at Black Friday/Cyber Monday (which I skipped this year as I felt I had enough to get through the winter, and I do).
The funny thing is that my St. Valentine's decor is all simple and frugal. I have handmade streamers hanging from the dining room light, made from curling ribbon I've had for 30 years. There is one little paper "love" banner I printed several years ago, and a paper bunting I bought some time ago at Target for $3. I have some sheer pink ribbons tied around the lamps, leftover from helping my kid make a corsage 7 years ago. Then I gather up anything pink or red I happen to have in the house such as the vintage pink candle holders, baskets with red accents, red and white enamel tins, a couple of pink bottles, etc. It's not that I don't buy anything for the holidays, special days, feast days, and liturgical seasons, but the purchases are either very frugal or very mindful.
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posting now to try to not spend any more $ this month -except for gas and groceries (fruits/vegetables).
feb spending:
groceries - $70
gas - $34
target - $89 for an epilator and underwear (3)
personal - $123 for botox and a haircut (things i only do 2-3 times a year)
total - $316
my goal for feb was $200, but already blew that. new goal: $400
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posting now to try to not spend any more $ this month -except for gas and groceries (fruits/vegetables).
feb spending:
groceries - $70
gas - $34
target - $89 for an epilator and underwear (3)
personal - $123 for botox and a haircut (things i only do 2-3 times a year)
total - $316
my goal for feb was $200, but already blew that. new goal: $400
Uh...I think it's popcorn popping time. I'll be right back.
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Ha! @Dicey :)
Still doing well--drove by my favourite thrift store yesterday and felt happy to not feel the urge to go in (especially b/c the parking lot was jammed full!)
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I've done this challenge once 7-8 yrs ago and it helped create a lot of mindfulness about buying things. I'll sign up for this year.
This challenge would be only for me, not the rest of the family although we are tight on money so we'd be mostly trying to make do, look for alternates and as last option, buy!
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So I had a couple of great weeks, bought nothing, in fact I actually sold a bunch of stuff I didn’t need and donated some things as well… but as of today I think I’ve officially lost this challenge. I just impulse-bought a truck I absolutely don’t need. I don’t know why I do these things lol.
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For some reason I'm sort of fixating on my jeans - but I'm determined to get through the rest of the season with my patched jeans for everyday wear.
I noticed yesterday that my patches are wearing thin. These jeans are at least 7 years old and were a hand me down from my mom when she gained weight. I wore them constantly throughout 2020 lockdown.
I might try to patch them again for fun and to practice my sewing.
Other than the craft materials for church and new blouse and nice jeans to wear in person to the office I've done well so far this year on spending for myself. I am doing a good job not replacing things when they wear out. I've trashed two pairs of shoes that were beyond salvage and a purse that was old and developed an unfixable hole in the bottom. Have not replaced any of those.
I've mended wool socks, my everyday jeans, and the strap on my daughter's bookbag.
I am replacing stuff for the kids (both had shoes falling apart this month), but on the other hand, we are already pretty minimalist and they each only have a single pair of everyday shoes. So I feel like we are starting from a good place!
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So I had a couple of great weeks, bought nothing, in fact I actually sold a bunch of stuff I didn’t need and donated some things as well… but as of today I think I’ve officially lost this challenge. I just impulse-bought a truck I absolutely don’t need. I don’t know why I do these things lol.
Ha—might not receive a super gold star but there’s still 10 months left to buy-less anyhow! Hope you’re happy with the purchase :)
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Things are going smoothly so far.
I’m still inspired to keep everything minimal since I have a few big expenditures this year anyhow (travel and dental work) so it’s amazing to have each paycheque go straight to necessary costs and savings (and I made as donation to the White Helmets working in Syria-inspired by some folks in the good deed thread)..
I’m actually using my previously purchased online yoga pass and getting use out of things in the closet which had been neglected. Really would like to focus on health and studying a language this spring and that shouldn’t require any purchases :)
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^Better knives are allowed. Crappy knives are actually dangerous.
Totally agree!
Plus once you buy good knives you're done for the rest of your life. We bought a set of Zwilling Pro S knives 30 years ago and still use them everyday.
Yeah I only hand wash them. I have had an 8" Victorinox Chef Knife for 15 years now, it will last me forever. I also have an 8" Shun Chef Knife. Let's I also have a Victorinox boning knife. I bought a nice forged German steel set of steak knives for $50 if I recall and like $15 for a good paring knife. All are German steel (except for the Shun). They all sharpen well on the two sharpening stones I have. I really like non-serrated set of steak knives since you can sharpen them every so often in a matter of like 15 to 30 seconds each on the stone.
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I'm actually now in a self imposed 365 day challenge to spend $500 or less the entire year on discretionary items. I'll let ya guys know in this thread how I am doing in a few months. Gonna aim for a $0 spend but will be happy with $500. This discretionary category includes all entertainment, dining, fast food, convenience store items, gifts etc..
My 365 day challenge period is Feb 15, 2023 to Feb 15, 2024.
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/365-day-challenge-$500-total-discretionary-spending/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/365-day-challenge-$500-total-discretionary-spending/)
So far so good for the $0 but it's only been 7 days :) (Following is a portion of a Profit & Loss statement from the free Gnucash finance software.)
(http://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=10z5fzoUwdNpdJgxnoE3-PN0-Sruaze5t)
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I wish I hadn't rebounded into spending after my last no-buy year 5 years ago...it actually didn't happen right away but last year (2022) was such a big year for emotional shopping. Maybe (post) pandemic comfort-shopping? :)
My emotions are so much more stable when spending is in line with my values. While money doesn't bring peace, it can relieve some external stressors that is for sure.
When I was deeply in debt (student loans)- I read this simple quote somewhere and wrote it in the front of my dayplanner... "The simple act of choosing not to spend money so you can save it is a soul soother, a nerve calmer. "
Coming from a family that never seemed to be secure in their financial footing I realize that my nervous system was always a bit high-strung around finances. Love feeling that settle into a lower-stress situation around finances. I love paying bills b/c I have the money to do so, our housing is fairly low cost for a HCOL location and my job situation is pretty ideal for now. Feeling grateful.
*I just googled that quote and found this article.
https://www.times-standard.com/2017/02/03/everyday-cheapskate-your-best-money-year-ever/amp/
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So I had a couple of great weeks, bought nothing, in fact I actually sold a bunch of stuff I didn’t need and donated some things as well… but as of today I think I’ve officially lost this challenge. I just impulse-bought a truck I absolutely don’t need. I don’t know why I do these things lol.
Ha—might not receive a super gold star but there’s still 10 months left to buy-less anyhow! Hope you’re happy with the purchase :)
Definitely some buyers remorse for a bit while I was working on it. I paid about half of Kelly Blue Book for it because it didn’t present very well (dirty and minor cosmetic issues) and was a bit of a risk, had some unknown engine troubles. Check engine light was on, but couldn’t read the code because the OBD port was dead, so I went into it blind. Nobody else was crazy enough to take that kind of risk on it, but I lucked out, OBD port just needed a new fuse, and the engine code was for a stuck open thermostat and failed sensor, which was easy to replace diy for under $100. No more buyers remorse lol.
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Two more days and I'll be one month into my 365 day max $500 discretionary spend. So far I've spent $0 in discretionary. Stretch goal is $0 discretionary spend for an entire year.
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Two more days and I'll be one month into my 365 day max $500 discretionary spend. So far I've spent $0 in discretionary. Stretch goal is $0 discretionary spend for an entire year.
That’s amazing! Well done!
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Two more days and I'll be one month into my 365 day max $500 discretionary spend. So far I've spent $0 in discretionary. Stretch goal is $0 discretionary spend for an entire year.
That’s amazing! Well done!
Thanks :) I didn't feel any sort of deprivation either :) Enjoying seeing my money gain interest in money market as well :)
Btw, it doesn't look like you had any expense then if you paid less for that truck than you can get for it. It's simply a transfer of assets. From cash to fixed/discretionary asset. Any depreciation would be the expense part of the transaction :) So it was an investment perhaps, and shouldn't count against you with this buy nothing challenge?
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Ummmm...unless you are flipping it (immediately going to sell it for more than you paid after repairs) then it is not an investment. Vehicles are by their very nature a depreciating asset.
No facepunch here and no judgement for buying a truck you can afford. But calling it "an investment" is not appropriate.
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Ummmm...unless you are flipping it (immediately going to sell it for more than you paid after repairs) then it is not an investment. Vehicles are by their very nature a depreciating asset.
No facepunch here and no judgement for buying a truck you can afford. But calling it "an investment" is not appropriate.
Yep, definitely not an investment unless I get more than I paid (and cover my time). It’s in a bit of a grey area until I decide if I’m keeping it or not, still figuring that out. And yeah, I feel like facepunches are in order, it may have been a good deal, but it certainly wasn’t a need and definitely at a minimum violates the spirit of the buy (almost) nothing challenge. Going to work extra hard to avoid stuff for a while.
Edit: oh, also full disclosure I bought a treadmill the other day (facepalm).
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Ummmm...unless you are flipping it (immediately going to sell it for more than you paid after repairs) then it is not an investment. Vehicles are by their very nature a depreciating asset.
No facepunch here and no judgement for buying a truck you can afford. But calling it "an investment" is not appropriate.
If he can sell it for twice what he paid for it.. that's a 100% return. He said he paid 1/2 of kelly blue book value.
My dad bought a 1965 mustang in the 80's.. drove it a long time. He ended up selling it for five times what he paid for it.
Regardless what I said about it being an "investment" -- I do see your point -- it still isn't an expense by any means, because it had an instant appreciation of about 100%.
I personally like buying old reliable vehicles which have pretty much fully depreciated. Like I bought an originally $65k Lexus LS400 for $5000 in 2011, and it only lost $2000 in value in the past 10 years. The car has lost zero in value in the past 5 years. Seems like any good running car can be sold for at least $3000.
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Ummmm...unless you are flipping it (immediately going to sell it for more than you paid after repairs) then it is not an investment. Vehicles are by their very nature a depreciating asset.
No facepunch here and no judgement for buying a truck you can afford. But calling it "an investment" is not appropriate.
If he can sell it for twice what he paid for it.. that's a 100% return. He said he paid 1/2 of kelly blue book value.
My dad bought a 1965 mustang in the 80's.. drove it a long time. He ended up selling it for five times what he paid for it.
Regardless what I said about it being an "investment" -- I do see your point -- it still isn't an expense by any means, because it had an instant appreciation of about 100%.
*IF* he can sell it for twice what he paid. That's a big if. The purchase, as stated by the original purchaser, is not an investment unless he turns a profit on the initial purchase price, plus his time and work performed and the price of the additional parts purchased.
Like I said, vehicles by their nature are depreciating assets. If it was purchased as a flip, then it is a use of capital which can be recouped in a resell. However, the purchaser has not stated any plan to resell the item. Therefore, I stand by my initial statement; this is not an investment, but instead an expenditure.
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Ummmm...unless you are flipping it (immediately going to sell it for more than you paid after repairs) then it is not an investment. Vehicles are by their very nature a depreciating asset.
No facepunch here and no judgement for buying a truck you can afford. But calling it "an investment" is not appropriate.
If he can sell it for twice what he paid for it.. that's a 100% return. He said he paid 1/2 of kelly blue book value.
My dad bought a 1965 mustang in the 80's.. drove it a long time. He ended up selling it for five times what he paid for it.
Regardless what I said about it being an "investment" -- I do see your point -- it still isn't an expense by any means, because it had an instant appreciation of about 100%.
*IF* he can sell it for twice what he paid. That's a big if. The purchase, as stated by the original purchaser, is not an investment unless he turns a profit on the initial purchase price, plus his time and work performed and the price of the additional parts purchased.
Like I said, vehicles by their nature are depreciating assets. If it was purchased as a flip, then it is a use of capital which can be recouped in a resell. However, the purchaser has not stated any plan to resell the item. Therefore, I stand by my initial statement; this is not an investment, but instead an expenditure.
What if he makes good use of it for say 5 years and sells it for twice what he paid for it? Is that not an investment? To use a vehicle for free and gain money at the same time? (Of course there is the registration and insurance to consider). My dad sure made out on his mustang though :)
Anyways, currently his truck is an investment, but over time it could not be :) Just have to figure out the depreciation, insurance costs , what practical use you he get out of it. etc. But in my bookkeeping software this financial transaction would be a transfer of assets with a "unrealized short term gain" of 100% in my equity account. Money was used to increase net worth -- it's an investment.
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@JenniferW, I am going to respond one final time, then I'm going to leave this alone.
You can "what if" ad infinitum. Maybe the china from my parents' house can be sold for 5x its original purchase price in 20 years because it has become rare? Is that then named an investment? Maybe I should start buying beanie babies or bobbleheads or baseball cards because they *might* be worth more someday?
The truck was not purchased as an investment. The original purchaser has not stated his intent with this vehicle. But buying something known to be a depreciating asset and then telling yourself it is an investment because you may be able to sell it for more later is not investing, it is speculating.
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@JenniferW, I am going to respond one final time, then I'm going to leave this alone.
You can "what if" ad infinitum. Maybe the china from my parents' house can be sold for 5x its original purchase price in 20 years because it has become rare? Is that then named an investment? Maybe I should start buying beanie babies or bobbleheads or baseball cards because they *might* be worth more someday?
The truck was not purchased as an investment. The original purchaser has not stated his intent with this vehicle. But buying something known to be a depreciating asset and then telling yourself it is an investment because you may be able to sell it for more later is not investing, it is speculating.
You don't have to repeat yourself. You aren't getting my point obviously though. In the short term it is an investment because he's fixed the car and can get twice what he paid for it. In bookkeeping software it increases net worth. Say he spent $2000 and he *knows* he can get $4000 for it now, he just increased his net worth by $2000. Net worth goes by current fair market value of your property.
The only reasoned I mentioned this is because I don't think it should disqualify him from "buy nothing" challenge because he hasn't "spent" anything at all. Since it's worth twice what he paid of for it, that easily allows him to cover the title transfer, registration and insurance on it for the time being. He could always sell it when his total expenses for the vehicle starts to approach the fair market value, and not have lost any money; if he sells it for more than his total expenses over a longer period of time it would therefore be a long term investment (over one year). But for the time being it is definitely a short term instant gain.
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@JenniferW, I am going to respond one final time, then I'm going to leave this alone.
You can "what if" ad infinitum. Maybe the china from my parents' house can be sold for 5x its original purchase price in 20 years because it has become rare? Is that then named an investment? Maybe I should start buying beanie babies or bobbleheads or baseball cards because they *might* be worth more someday?
The truck was not purchased as an investment. The original purchaser has not stated his intent with this vehicle. But buying something known to be a depreciating asset and then telling yourself it is an investment because you may be able to sell it for more later is not investing, it is speculating.
It was certainly speculation (aka a calculated gamble). After taxes and insurance, parts and a tank of gas running around, and my time, I’m into it for more like 60% of Kelly Blue Book, plus I’ll need to do a bit more to it cosmetically if I’m going to get all the money for it, and there’s still no guarantee what I’ll get for it. I’m probably going to run it for the summer and see if it’s practical to keep, and if it isn’t adding any value to me, I’ll list it in the fall.
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Still going well on my end.
Haven't bought anything recently physical except groceries and oh yes, one e-book that I couldn't get from the library.
Had a few more cravings for actual real-life things (spring clothing, an ice cube tray, mountain bike--ha). But so far am holding out & working with the things that I have and trying not to justify too much too soon since for me it's a slippery slope.
Will aim to do a repair project or two today.
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Still going well on my end.
Haven't bought anything recently physical except groceries and oh yes, one e-book that I couldn't get from the library.
Had a few more cravings for actual real-life things (spring clothing, an ice cube tray, mountain bike--ha). But so far am holding out & working with the things that I have and trying not to justify too much too soon since for me it's a slippery slope.
Will aim to do a repair project or two today.
Awesome job! But wouldn't the ice cube tray be a necessity? And perhaps shouldn't count against you for the challenge? For me personally I am doing a buy nothing related to discretionary items only. I'd expense an ice cube tray under Household:Kitchen much like a needed utensil. Or maybe you have another ice cube tray and the one you wanted made cute little animal ice cubes or whatever ? :)
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@Serendip back when I was super minimalist I made and ice bag out of a linen kitchen towel then froze ice in random containers and crushed it in the bag with a hammer. Crushed ice is superior to tray ice. I’m not minimalist anymore and ice cube trays came with my house, but I thought I’d pass that idea on.
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Ah, an update on the icecube tray situation :)
I realized that we must have one somewhere since we froze heaps of pesto last summer and found a silicone one in a different cupboard (my partner is more organized than I am so he must've tucked it in there).
Thanks for the input @JenniferW & @PMG but seems like it was a mislaid desire, sometimes we already have exactly what we need. ha.
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@Serendip, that sounds like a perfect solution. It's like shopping in the back of your closet!
I feel like we've been purging for years. We've moved multiple times in the past 10 years, each time a downsize and/or a calculated move to bring us to FI. We *still* occasionally happen upon an item we forget we still own.
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@Serendip, that sounds like a perfect solution. It's like shopping in the back of your closet!
I feel like we've been purging for years. We've moved multiple times in the past 10 years, each time a downsize and/or a calculated move to bring us to FI. We *still* occasionally happen upon an item we forget we still own.
That's funny @Josiecat23503 --I do a post now & then in my journal under the heading Shopping in My House..ha. I think many of us forget certain things we own if everything is not in constant rotation. Keeps it interesting to find items!
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I hate owning/buying stuff. I don't get it.
I have some gear for outdoor activities. Once you buy it, it's good for 10 years. Bike, skis, tent, etc.
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I hate owning/buying stuff. I don't get it.
I have some gear for outdoor activities. Once you buy it, it's good for 10 years. Bike, skis, tent, etc.
Yeah I know what you mean. I try and buy stuff that lasts a lifetime and buy it used at well below fair market value, that way if I need to get rid of it, I get all my money back. Just bought four Emeco Navy 1006 chairs for $50 each; they retail for $720 each and last forever (150 year warranty).. indestructible chairs. They just happen to be functional minimalistic chairs as well -- but I didn't buy them because of that.. I just thought they looked cool and were a good value.
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Yeah I know what you mean. I try and buy stuff that lasts a lifetime and buy it used at well below fair market value, that way if I need to get rid of it, I get all my money back. Just bought four Emeco Navy 1006 chairs for $50 each; they retail for $720 each and last forever (150 year warranty).. indestructible chairs. They just happen to be functional minimalistic chairs as well -- but I didn't buy them because of that.. I just thought they looked cool and were a good value.
That is an amazing value on those chairs! I got mine at cost over a decade ago and I thought that was a good deal - $50 bucks is a steal!
My Navy chairs are still my favorite furniture in my house. Also the seats are small enough that they are the most versatile furniture we own, they tuck in just about anywhere. And they are handmade by well paid artisans, using recycled materials, in the US! Win/Win all around.
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Yeah I know what you mean. I try and buy stuff that lasts a lifetime and buy it used at well below fair market value, that way if I need to get rid of it, I get all my money back. Just bought four Emeco Navy 1006 chairs for $50 each; they retail for $720 each and last forever (150 year warranty).. indestructible chairs. They just happen to be functional minimalistic chairs as well -- but I didn't buy them because of that.. I just thought they looked cool and were a good value.
That is an amazing value on those chairs! I got mine at cost over a decade ago and I thought that was a good deal - $50 bucks is a steal!
My Navy chairs are still my favorite furniture in my house. Also the seats are small enough that they are the most versatile furniture we own, they tuck in just about anywhere. And they are handmade by well paid artisans, using recycled materials, in the US! Win/Win all around.
If you need more of them, the lady I bought them from in Oklahoma has like 80 more for $50 a piece. She bought like 150 of them for $15 a piece from a closed down Arby's .. crazy! Here they are with my $25 table I bought from Facebook marketplace.. ignore the walls.. still need to finish trim paint and put the mop boards back on. (Lamp and vases were free, artwork on wall is from a japanese calender I bought for 50 cents from flea market, and the menu card holder is $1.25 acrylic 5x7 portrait frame from Dollar Tree.) EDIT: these are how the chairs looked right after I bought them, before I polished them.
(http://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1AKMFaRguwQZH6Dudrv8f4FGWrNKEE1ny)
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I hate owning/buying stuff. I don't get it.
I have some gear for outdoor activities. Once you buy it, it's good for 10 years. Bike, skis, tent, etc.
Yeah I know what you mean. I try and buy stuff that lasts a lifetime and buy it used at well below fair market value, that way if I need to get rid of it, I get all my money back. Just bought four Emeco Navy 1006 chairs for $50 each; they retail for $720 each and last forever (150 year warranty).. indestructible chairs. They just happen to be functional minimalistic chairs as well -- but I didn't buy them because of that.. I just thought they looked cool and were a good value.
This is the way
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Yeah I know what you mean. I try and buy stuff that lasts a lifetime and buy it used at well below fair market value, that way if I need to get rid of it, I get all my money back. Just bought four Emeco Navy 1006 chairs for $50 each; they retail for $720 each and last forever (150 year warranty).. indestructible chairs. They just happen to be functional minimalistic chairs as well -- but I didn't buy them because of that.. I just thought they looked cool and were a good value.
That is an amazing value on those chairs! I got mine at cost over a decade ago and I thought that was a good deal - $50 bucks is a steal!
My Navy chairs are still my favorite furniture in my house. Also the seats are small enough that they are the most versatile furniture we own, they tuck in just about anywhere. And they are handmade by well paid artisans, using recycled materials, in the US! Win/Win all around.
If you need more of them, the lady I bought them from in Oklahoma has like 80 more for $50 a piece. She bought like 150 of them for $15 a piece from a closed down Arby's .. crazy! Here they are with my $25 table I bought from Facebook marketplace.. ignore the walls.. still need to finish trim paint and put the mop boards back on. (Lamp and vases were free, artwork on wall is from a japanese calender I bought for 50 cents from flea market, and the menu card holder is $1.25 acrylic 5x7 portrait frame from Dollar Tree.) EDIT: these are how the chairs looked right after I bought them, before I polished them.
(http://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1AKMFaRguwQZH6Dudrv8f4FGWrNKEE1ny)
Oh my gosh- yes! Please feel free to message me the contact info or link. My son has a small desk that needs a Navy sized chair and I would love to have my 6th dining room chair back at my table.
Your table set up is adorable!
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I bought 3 pieces of clothing - all for work that was an exception to my buy-almost-nothing list. - one jacket, one top and a dress. We are at the end of 3 months I've been good so far.
I had put on so much weight during pandemic + high stress year in 2022 that none of my work clothes fit anymore. I'm extremely careful on what I buy - lesser in quantity and high in quality is what I'm going for. I am also hoping to supplement with some sewing from my stash.
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I bought 3 pieces of clothing - all for work that was an exception to my buy-almost-nothing list. - one jacket, one top and a dress. We are at the end of 3 months I've been good so far.
I had put on so much weight during pandemic + high stress year in 2022 that none of my work clothes fit anymore. I'm extremely careful on what I buy - lesser in quantity and high in quality is what I'm going for. I am also hoping to supplement with some sewing from my stash.
Congrats! That is so awesome. You should be proud :)
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Was at the grocery store yesterday and grabbed a lighter (for incense/candles/etc) and I felt on the edge of being transgressive...shifting baselines are a wonderful thing.
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Was at the grocery store yesterday and grabbed a lighter (for incense/candles/etc) and I felt on the edge of being transgressive...shifting baselines are a wonderful thing.
I bought a pack of lighters because all of ours were completely out, and while matches work for a candle here and there, they are impractical when I'm lighting a dozen or more tea lights for our Advent and Lenten spirals. Indeed, by the time we reach Holy Saturday, I'll be lighting 40 candles.
My edge of transgressive purchase was buying two makeup items while purchasing skincare i'd run out of. I don't usually wear much makeup (and not daily), but I'll be on stage next month and last time I was on stage I watched the replay and realized I was completely washed out -- natural makeup disappears in the bright lights. The makeup items were enough for me to get three items I use regularly for free (a moisturizer, summer moisturizer, and cleanser), so it ends up being a wash. Clinique is just weird like that, a little pricey but working their deals brings the prices down to drugstore levels. I spent $100 and got $243 of full price product, plus one of the bonus sampler bags (which Clinique claims is worth $107 but wouldn't cost that much on a per unit basis if buying the items full size). I always wait until they are doing 30% off plus free full size items plus a bonus sampler bag, and then I look for an affiliate offer as well -- so it's only a few times a year. The skincare and powder with SPF were definitely planned purchases and I'll need to buy more before the year is out.
But really, we are doing astoundingly well with the buy almost nothing challenge. Hobby spending has ceased, and indeed, after decluttering my library I decided to skip the various used book sales I had previously given myself permission to purchase from. We're happily wearing clothing and shoes we already own, reading books we own or get from the library, and making things with the hobby materials we have. I spent the past week rearranging rooms in anticipation of the college kid graduating and moving back home, and managed to create a lovely craft room / office workspace / library using only furniture and organizers we already own.
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No, I'm not interested.
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I am in for "almost nothing" - ....
A couple of planned exceptions:
1. A new mattress (but looking for bargains)
2. 1-2 upcoming video games that are scheduled for 2023 releases
3. Minor house and garden maintenance items (only Feb '- April)
4. Occasional op-shop clothing for DH (nothing needed for me)
Q1 done, so far so good: got 1 of the 2 planned video games, but nothing else frivolous, no clothes, no "things".
Got the planned minor house/garden items included painting mats for renovation (kitchen) and net pots for the salad/veg section of the greenhouse (plus some seedlings). Still, very low-key this year.
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Happy New Month!
My frivolous spending for March included:
- $40 for boba juice pearls for daughter's first slumber party
- $92 to host coffee hour at church - this was a combination of bakery purchased and homemade items. Fed about 30 people a really nice post church lunch so I was pleased with this total
- $40 annual subscription to a mindful eating app
Also cancelled my Curiosity Stream channel - so we are down to only Prime at this point.
@jnw - I decided to forgo the chairs (because I don't NEED them, just want them) - but thank you for sharing the info with me!
Possible spends coming up on the horizon:
- Black shoes - I have no black shoes at all after wearing through multiple pairs this winter. May check clearance racks sometime soon.
- Long sleeved/cool shirts for summer - After several skin spot checks the last few years, I need to cover up better in the summer. Old Navy has linen boyfriend style shirts this year and I'll wait for a sale to grab some.
- Walking shoes - All my shoes wear out at once. I walk a lot and hips and feet are starting to hurt. It is time for new ones.
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Last month was good. $0 discretionary spend. The four Emeco Navy 1006 chairs I bought for $200 last month were not expensed, but simply a transfer of assets. They are indestructible and impossible for them to depreciate any further. In fact I can sell for a $100 each if I want later on :) The $25 dining table and $20 night stand were necessity spends (they were expensed), not discretionary. Also made an "investment" purchase of more plates, bowls and flatware -- so the dishwashing machine becomes more full each load conserving water, electricity, wear and tear on machine as well as detergent.
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But really, we are doing astoundingly well with the buy almost nothing challenge. Hobby spending has ceased, and indeed, after decluttering my library I decided to skip the various used book sales I had previously given myself permission to purchase from. We're happily wearing clothing and shoes we already own, reading books we own or get from the library, and making things with the hobby materials we have. I spent the past week rearranging rooms in anticipation of the college kid graduating and moving back home, and managed to create a lovely craft room / office workspace / library using only furniture and organizers we already own.
This is so awesome and why I love these challenges. Sometimes it highlights what we already have or have access to!
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Good job everyone!
Three months down and a successful challenge for me so far.
I'm excited to do the seasonal change-over and maybe donate some of the things that I've felt obligated to keep (but which I don't love using). It doesn't tend to change so am ready to accept that.
I do need to pick up the fitness program so that all my summer things fit comfortably... since I found a skipping rope while cleaning the other day, I've decided to toss that into the routine. It's actually pretty challenging for me so am starting very small and will build over the next month or two.
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I’ve tried really hard for the last month, and really haven’t bought much at all that I didn’t need. I got a used tonneau cover for the truck, and that was basically it I think.
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Found myself browsing summer shoes online...
quickly shut that down.
I need to do an honest assessment once I take winter gear downstairs and bring up summer stuff. Pretty sure I can make it though the summer with what I have as long as nothing breaks (I have an older pair of water shoes/sandals that I use for canoeing, etc...they showed signs of possible breakage last year but I might be able to repair)
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I am in for "almost nothing" - ....
A couple of planned exceptions:
1. A new mattress (but looking for bargains)
2. 1-2 upcoming video games that are scheduled for 2023 releases
3. Minor house and garden maintenance items (only Feb '- April)
4. Occasional op-shop clothing for DH (nothing needed for me)
Q1 done, so far so good: got 1 of the 2 planned video games, but nothing else frivolous, no clothes, no "things".
Got the planned minor house/garden items included painting mats for renovation (kitchen) and net pots for the salad/veg section of the greenhouse (plus some seedlings). Still, very low-key this year.
Q2 not yet over, still so far, so good - DH got some discount biking clothes (wasn't op-shopped but discount specials as replacement for failing/worn-out gear), so I am still counting this under exception 4. Nothing else. My planned video game is coming out in September, I think - and no bargain on matress as of now.
So nothing else bought (other than groceries and pet supplies which don't count towards the challenge. I am counting this as being "on track".
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It's been 4 months into my $500 or less in discretionary expenses for a year. (Started on 2/15/23). I was at $0 spent until a week or so ago.. had to buy my nephew and his wife a water flosser for their gum health -- will significantly improve the quality of their life so had to get it. Also bought Elden Ring xbox series x game for $30.50. I'll use until it depreciates to $20 and then sell on facebook. So a $10.50 expense there. So sitting at just over $50 discretionary in the past 4 months.
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I want to be in for the second half of 2023.
I'm going to set parameters for myself here and see if I can stick to it.
No discretionary spending, with the following exceptions:
1. Events with friends & family (concerts, skiing, happy hour, whatever). I know this seems like a gigantic exception, because it is. I'll be conscious of moderating and trying to suggest cheap/free activities, but I don't want my active social life to completely disappear. Loneliness is bad for your health, after all. So, basically, if I get invited and I want to go and it seems reasonable, I'm going.
2. Education expenses for my children. And reasonable Christmas gifts for them.
3. Food for the house.
4. Travel that I've already planned, or any additional travel to visit family.
5. Replacing something that actually breaks beyond repair that I actively use.
So, I can ski, but can't buy equipment. I can go to happy hour when I'm invited by my friends, but will get a low priced beverage to be social and head home to eat afterwards. This is the plan.
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I want to be in for the second half of 2023.
I'm going to set parameters for myself here and see if I can stick to it.
No discretionary spending, with the following exceptions:
1. Events with friends & family (concerts, skiing, happy hour, whatever). I know this seems like a gigantic exception, because it is. I'll be conscious of moderating and trying to suggest cheap/free activities, but I don't want my active social life to completely disappear. Loneliness is bad for your health, after all. So, basically, if I get invited and I want to go and it seems reasonable, I'm going.
2. Education expenses for my children. And reasonable Christmas gifts for them.
3. Food for the house.
4. Travel that I've already planned, or any additional travel to visit family.
5. Replacing something that actually breaks beyond repair that I actively use.
So, I can ski, but can't buy equipment. I can go to happy hour when I'm invited by my friends, but will get a low priced beverage to be social and head home to eat afterwards. This is the plan.
Sounds good to me! Good luck! :)
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Happy New Month!
My frivolous spending for March included:
- $40 for boba juice pearls for daughter's first slumber party
- $92 to host coffee hour at church - this was a combination of bakery purchased and homemade items. Fed about 30 people a really nice post church lunch so I was pleased with this total
- $40 annual subscription to a mindful eating app
Also cancelled my Curiosity Stream channel - so we are down to only Prime at this point.
@jnw - I decided to forgo the chairs (because I don't NEED them, just want them) - but thank you for sharing the info with me!
Possible spends coming up on the horizon:
- Black shoes - I have no black shoes at all after wearing through multiple pairs this winter. May check clearance racks sometime soon.
- Long sleeved/cool shirts for summer - After several skin spot checks the last few years, I need to cover up better in the summer. Old Navy has linen boyfriend style shirts this year and I'll wait for a sale to grab some.
- Walking shoes - All my shoes wear out at once. I walk a lot and hips and feet are starting to hurt. It is time for new ones.
And this is additional purchasing since March:
Long sleeve linen boyfriend shirt - Old Navy, hideous tropical palm tree print, will use for gardening. $11.57
Black T-shirt Dress - Old Navy $10.00
Navy and white striped shell - Old Navy $8ish (will wear under my navy or red blazers for church and work).
Long sleeve white SPF shirt - Amazon $17.00
Long sleeve blue SPF shirt - Amazon $21.00
Long sleeve SPF turquoise hoodie shirt - Amazon $48.00 (but was the #1 recommendation outdoor gear lab)
Magic invisible thread for my son - 11.97
All day locker at amusement park (so that I could ride rides with my son) $12.00
Fabric markers for daughter - $9.99
AND - replacing our old car - $24,329
So we were doing really well until the car. Most of the clothes are replacement things for me, or a choice to purchase SPF clothing instead of spending a hundred bucks on sunscreen every summer. We were hoping to keep the car going until 2025 (at which point our waitilisted prius prime plug in would be ready or Bolts would be easier to get) - but the mechanic told us to stop driving it or spend several k on repairs. (more than that car is worth). After a week of looking at HORRIBLE deals on used vehicles, we ordered a new one that should arrive in a month or two.
ahh well. Just have to keep the discretionary low for the rest of the year.
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I am in for "almost nothing" - ....
A couple of planned exceptions:
1. A new mattress (but looking for bargains)
2. 1-2 upcoming video games that are scheduled for 2023 releases
3. Minor house and garden maintenance items (only Feb '- April)
4. Occasional op-shop clothing for DH (nothing needed for me)
Q1 done, so far so good: got 1 of the 2 planned video games, but nothing else frivolous, no clothes, no "things".
Got the planned minor house/garden items included painting mats for renovation (kitchen) and net pots for the salad/veg section of the greenhouse (plus some seedlings). Still, very low-key this year.
Q2 not yet over, still so far, so good - DH got some discount biking clothes (wasn't op-shopped but discount specials as replacement for failing/worn-out gear), so I am still counting this under exception 4. Nothing else. My planned video game is coming out in September, I think - and no bargain on matress as of now.
So nothing else bought (other than groceries and pet supplies which don't count towards the challenge. I am counting this as being "on track".
Guess I spoke too early: finally got a special on a suitable matress, so I went for it. That leaves now only the Sept video game as allowable consumable this year.
Nevertheless, my unplanned spending has unfortunately increased now. Not for consumables, but unscheduled vet visits and emergency surgery for one of my pets next week ... And not even sure she will survive (she's already quite old with chronic blood pressure and heart issues). Still, this is what I keep emergency funds for ...
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I am completely terrible at this challenge! I just bought a little side table (used, and much nicer than the one that was there, but I didn't really need it). And then I bought some clothes! The worst offense, as I absolutely do not need more clothes!
So I need to stiffen up and get serious. The second half of the year starts in July, and June's early performance has been awful.
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So I need to stiffen up and get serious. The second half of the year starts in July, and June's early performance has been awful.
Alright--I'm here with you @Zamboni !
I had a successful first 4 months then bought a few things (first for a trip, then when I was on a trip) but am committed to this challenge for the rest of the year. Let's do this.
Am keen to keep my savings high this year and also to spend most of my time living, working and doing things rather than being in stores, etc. More interesting in the long run to stay engaged than to turn to consumerism for dopamine hits :)
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July was a clusterfuck as far as spending went. Not too much on any goods, but I had to fork out substantial amounts of money for vet bills due to extended surgery for one of my senior pets. She handled it well, though, and her improved quality of life is worth it.
DH also needed extra funds for bike maintenance (repair parts), so I really could not save any money in July (the extra expenses were funded from cashflow).
Trying to catch up in August again.