Nospendber

[forummm]

After having a frugally fantastic No Buy July, and an august August marked by majestic dignity and grandeur, a Savings-filled Savetember, and a big-investing Stocktober, it's time for the next month of savings and frugality--Nospendber.  Who else is in?

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/no-buy-july/
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/august-august/
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/savetember/
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/stocktober/

[G-dog]

Love the name!

How about a reminder on the guidelines? Obviously monthly bills get paid, what about groceries, etc?

[choppingwood]

I'm in.

I have some planned spending -- winter boots and winter tires. 

[Bracken_Joy]

I'm in again! October was pretty successful, with a 63.8% SR, and I'm hoping we can keep with a great SR in November! We're saving up for a house downpayment, and are at nearly $20k now. The goal is an additional $2k/month.

Anticipated Challenges:
-Dog has a surgery at the vet. $900-1300 is expected. This is, of course, not great for our numbers. Especially since we're as low as $4k some months for income. Next month could be as high as $7k income, though, so I'm hoping we can still pull it all off.
-Always the chance we'll have to get the second car finally. We can't keep borrowing forever... or can we? =D We're hoping for a ~$6k budget when we do buy. (Cash and used, of course). This would come out of our cash buffer, and shouldn't touch the downpayment fund.
-Thanksgiving means driving to see family. Could be a high gas month again (October was $305, although that was primarily work).

Boons for the challenge:
-I just worked a brutal workweek this week, with the paycheck coming next Friday for that. So our income should be higher than usual.

Anticipated spending beyond the usual (rent, groceries, gas, parking, utilities, etc etc):
-Dog vet costs
-Home depot trip, I'm guessing about $50-100 for this. New shower head and a DIY squat stand.

So far that's all that's planned. Hoping we keep this month lean!

[Zamboni]

I'm in.

Still need to get my shower door fixed; thinking about just taking it off the hinges and putting up a curtain for now. I can always worry about a door when I sell the house some day.

Otherwise, I'm going to try and spend nothing other than baseline expenditures. No holiday shopping!

[Seppia]

The amazing stocktober is behind us, let's head into Nospendber!
Could potentially be a great month, but some travel is planned and will likely impact savings.
We will see.

[realityinabox]

How does it work?

[choppingwood]

How does it work?

You spend as little as you can for the whole month, and report on successes and challenges, and give others encouragement. Then you put as much money as you can into investments, savings or debt reduction, depending on what you are personally working on.

[Bracken_Joy]

How does it work?

Well, the extreme end of the goal would be: "No discretional spending above the absolute minimum required for this month." Or, you can set your own parameters. Ex., I know we will be spending on a home depot trip to DIY a couple things, so that gets an "expected expense" line item. But beyond my expected expenses, I will try to buy nothing. And it helps to have the gauntlet group to help you, because you know you'll have to justify other expenses to them.

You can also specify things you will NOT spend on this month that you usually do. Ex., Sailor Sam will be trying to curb his starbucks habit if he joins again this month. (And it's one of my favorite categories to pick on- you've all been warned, mwahaha).

You can also set a savings rate goal. I would like to top 65% SR for November. If you don't know the MMM way of calculating SR, you can find that here: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/01/26/calculating-net-worth/  It was very different than I expected initially.

If you have immediate control of your income, either by being a contractor or running a side hustle, you can also try to increase the income side of the equation to give your month a boost, like Seppia did last month.

So set your own goals and parameters, and join in! =)

[Sailor Sam]

You can also set a savings rate goal. I would like to top 65% SR for November. If you don't know the MMM way of calculating SR, you can find that here: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/01/26/calculating-net-worth/  It was very different than I expected initially.

How did you initially think net worth was calculated? You said some thing similar on a different thread (journal, maybe?) and it piqued my interest. Not to put you on the spot, I'm just curious about how each individual person goes about math. Especially since I've been introduced to the U.S. Common Core math concepts. Incomprehensible squiggles with boxes and cubes. 7+3=10! Just memorize it kid, save yourself!

[G-dog]

I recently retired and living off of savings. So no income therefore no SR per se. Any thoughts on another metric? Or just skip it and minimize spend.

[Bracken_Joy]

You can also set a savings rate goal. I would like to top 65% SR for November. If you don't know the MMM way of calculating SR, you can find that here: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/01/26/calculating-net-worth/  It was very different than I expected initially.

How did you initially think net worth was calculated? You said some thing similar on a different thread (journal, maybe?) and it piqued my interest. Not to put you on the spot, I'm just curious about how each individual person goes about math. Especially since I've been introduced to the U.S. Common Core math concepts. Incomprehensible squiggles with boxes and cubes. 7+3=10! Just memorize it kid, save yourself!

I struggle with that too, actually. For net worth, I just use the number Mint tells me. That one is pretty easy for us since all our money is in accounts- we don't own a house or anything right now, so no question on valuation there. Really though, I'm an awful person to ask about it, because I had to have DH make me an excel spreadsheet where I could just plug in our #s to calculate SR. (I couldn't figure out how to spread the SEP IRA contributions we get once per year across the different months, and what point to add it in at).

I recently retired and living off of savings. So no income therefore no SR per se. Any thoughts on another metric? Or just skip it and minimize spend.

No income of any sort, no qualified distributions or dividends or SS or rent checks? (How is your retirement sustainable then? Waiting on the pipeline to kick in or something?) That does make it a little complicated. In that case, I would probably just do spending as a % of baseline. If you normally track your spending, you know how much you usually spend on all your categories and total. Maybe shoot for spending 80% of your baseline total, or something like that?

Either that or maybe rock the side hustle this month. It's coming up on the holidays, there's always money making opportunities this time of year =)

[forummm]

For the 'how does this work questions':

Generally, just maximize your savings. The easiest way to do this is by not spending money you don't need to spend. For example, here's our Stocktober results, and we continued to live our life like normal. We ate great nutritious food, have 2 cars, a nice house, all the utilities we need, got library books, read/watched/listened to free stuff online, etc. Live a great life without paying much.

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/stocktober/msg854495/#msg854495

Another great month.

$200.01   Utilities
$291.01   Groceries
$145.69   Eating Out
$154.57   Misc (includes roof repair but also rebates from cashing in credit card rewards for the year)
401.00   Insurance (prorated) and property tax (prorated)
311.00   Interest expense
1,503.28   Total Expenses

[Scommm]

My monthly pay after funding everything last month from my employer was $4.  Everything else went to savings or pre tax accounts / expenses.  Should be the same until Feb of next year.

[Zaga]

Savetember was great!  We got our medical fund filled for the rest of the year, I estimated high so we may not need all of it this calendar year, but with the surgery bills just starting to come it's best to be safe.  I'm sure I got this filled faster than I would have without this challenge.

Nospendber is more of the same for us, our emergency fund needs another $2K, which I hope to have in there by the end of 2015.

So far, increased 401-K to 25% for this month, will go down again in Dec, this is just for cash flow management, still maxing out for the year.  Final debt will be reduced by $1,177 in Nospendber :-)

Also, scheduled $433 to transfer to the emergency fund tomorrow.  $1,567 to go.

Things we are doing to fill up this fund:  Using my small paychecks only for this, sending money from my brother to this, negotiating no Christmas presents between siblings this year, under-spending budget on groceries, gas, entertainment, etc.

[midweststache]

After lurking on these gauntlets, I think I'm hopping on Nospendber. Despite our net worth shooting up almost 10K in October (three paycheck month, market recovery, finalizing our student loan refinance, etc.) our spending was atrocious. Time to rein it in.

Like BrackenJoy, we're saving for a down payment. I consider each month a success if we can put more than $1,000 toward that fund, so that's the goal for this month. Last month (extra paycheck month) we hit $1,200; in September we put away $775.

Scheduled Expenses:
- I have a haircut (admittedly pricey) scheduled this month.
- Fido will need a new bag of freeze-dried nuggets before too long.
- Fido also has a grooming appointment this week (it's been far too long, and he's kinda smelly).
- I have a coffee date with a friend Thursday. (I'm not going to bemoan the $2 for a cup of coffee, but I'm not going to let myself slide into getting a pastry or something else as well!)

Challenges:
- I'm having surgery late in the month (very routine) so our medical bills will likely be high from pre-surgical screenings and whatnot (the cost of the actual surgery will likely be billed in December). I think our HSA should cover all of November's expenses, but we don't have enough in there to cover our out-of-pocket-max, so I'm not sure.
- Post-surgery I will need to take a cab home from the hospital (no car, no public transit since I'll still be drugged-up and in uber-pain).

Advantages:
- Surgery means not going to visit family for Thanksgiving. No car rental, no gas, no crappy food on the seven-hour-drive.
- Surgery means a low-fat diet two weeks before and two weeks after. Hello celery sticks, goodbye delicious dark-meat turkey. (This should save us some money on grocery shopping and will definitely curtail any dining out during those periods.)

*Edited for an atrocious misuse of there/their/they're.

[Nancy]

I'm in again. This month my goal is to spend less than my 12-month average and invest the difference (SR of 72%+ of paycheck). I'd like to spend on food without concentrating on my budget to see if my natural spending has gone down after the past two months of spending less.  I'll be buying three necessary items for my bike. Good luck!

[Eric222]

I'm in!  Although, this is what I was going for generally - and the vacation to see family is exempt within the saved budget (although that is a whopping $300). 

Goal:  50% SR (pre-debt interest).

[serra]

I'm joining the forum to finally join a challenge. My savings rate goal is 74% (last month I hit 69%).

To kick off the month I cancelled 2 regular fitness packages and replaced them with a free trial of a yoga video subscription service. I figure I can spend this month trying out all the services to decide whether any make sense.

Foreseen complications: I need a haircut, and I'm rapidly outgrowing my normal clothes (heading into my second trimester). Also, I didn't do a great job of grocery shopping last weekend so getting through this week without another run will require some creativity.

[snacky]

i'm in.
November is a pretty cheap month in snackyland - no birthdays, holidays, major events. so let's do this.

Scheduled Expenses:
-I will be kind to myself and permit takeout 2x this month, to be used when I had a very bad day.
-getting family portrait done - worth the cost, imo.
-several holiday gifts are on alerts, so if they cost below $x I will buy them.
-I got 2/3 of an ikea sink/ vanity for a great price, not I have to buy the last part. hopefully not for full price, but with the savings on the other parts I may just pay for it and get on with my life. one bucket of paint and some work next weekend and i'll have a new-looking bathroom. If I find something very cheaply I may also replace the fugly light fixture in there while i'm at it.

Challenges:
-I have a weakness for lunches out, and several friends working near me that like having lunch with me. this month I will propose free lunchtime activities, and if sit-down is needed I will suggest coffee instead of lunch. 100% brown bag this month.

Advantages:
it's November, the most boring of months.

[choppingwood]

I recently retired and living off of savings. So no income therefore no SR per se. Any thoughts on another metric? Or just skip it and minimize spend.

As near as I can tell, this exercise began as a measure of spending, and last month moved into a measure of saving, and this month has different people focused on one, the other, or both.

I stopped working (pretty much) 5 months ago. For the first year, I am interested in knowing what I am really going to spend on day to day living and necessary major purchases, so that I can plan my cash flow  and know how much is available for more discretionary spending. For me, tracking a minimal spend, along with some planned purchases, is how this process is useful to me. So, I measure spending by category and whether I kept planned purchases within the planned spending.

I have several income streams, but these will not all be the same over time, so it isn't useful to me what percentage I "save".

The metric simply needs to fit your own goals. I agree that an SR probably isn't the best metric once you are retired, though some seem to find it soothing to live on less than a monthly "allotment" and measure that. It may be that the minimal spend exercise isn't even useful to a person once retired, because the accumulation phase is done.

[Bracken_Joy]

I'm joining the forum to finally join a challenge. My savings rate goal is 74% (last month I hit 69%).

To kick off the month I cancelled 2 regular fitness packages and replaced them with a free trial of a yoga video subscription service. I figure I can spend this month trying out all the services to decide whether any make sense.

Foreseen complications: I need a haircut, and I'm rapidly outgrowing my normal clothes (heading into my second trimester). Also, I didn't do a great job of grocery shopping last weekend so getting through this week without another run will require some creativity.

I'm glad the challenge finally got you to come out and join! Jump in- the water is great =D And congrats on the pregnancy!

Re: the clothing. Be sure to look for Mom's groups on FB for your area and see if you have a local chapter of the Buy Nothing Group. I see a lot of maternity and clothes for little ones get traded around quite a bit. Perfection is the enemy of frugality (see this great post: http://www.frugalwoods.com/2015/07/13/perfection-is-the-enemy-of-frugality/ ), so see if you can get creative and find some "good enough" type solutions!

You have an awesome savings rate, though, so well done! It's always fun to keep trying to optimize further though.

[choppingwood]

An interesting start to a month of minimal spending. I drove into the city yesterday to attend a Billy Connolly concert. I had bought the ticket in September and had full tank of gas in the car, purchased in October, so my November expenses included dinner w/drinks before the show ($37.50) and parking ($6.). Got caught in a bad snowstorm driving home, and had to check in to a Best Western ($150.00) last night. First time in the six years I've lived here.

Put beans in bowl to soak before I left for rice and beans. Back on track with a frugal supper, though there is meat in the freezer.

[purplepear]

I'm so in for this. October was spendy.

I'm starting a new job this month with a longer commute, so I'm gonna have to be extra proactive about cooking and packing my lunches. And my SO is going back to grad school in the spring... so I'm trying to save up all that I can before we go down to 1 income.

Off to a good start though. Bought groceries for the week yesterday for $40 for 2 people. :)

[ethereality]

I'll jump in, too. I already save around 60 - 75% of my income, but I'm going to keep reducing the restaurant number. Last month, I spent around $140 on restaurant. This month, I'm going to try quitting cold turkey. Gradual reduction doesn't seem to motivate me at all.

Editing to add that I want to be under $1000 this month. My rent is $550, and health insurance is at $176, so I'm going to need to get creative!

[use2betrix]

Have a $1500 surgery for my dog this month, which is more than all his vet bills the last 11 years combined probably. Need to purchase my fiances wedding band for our wedding coming up, thankfully she just found one $500 cheaper than what I was going to pick out. Also have various other upcoming wedding costs this month and next month. I'll be lucky to get a 25% SR this month and maybe? Break even the next two months. The good news is the last 3 months I saved enough to pay for 3 weddings, and getting married before the end of the year will increase my tax return for 2015 around $8000 or so.

Trying. Really. Hard. To. Look. At. The. Big. Picture, as the next few months will be rough financially.

[choppingwood]

Have a $1500 surgery for my dog this month, which is more than all his vet bills the last 11 years combined probably. Need to purchase my fiances wedding band for our wedding coming up, thankfully she just found one $500 cheaper than what I was going to pick out. Also have various other upcoming wedding costs this month and next month. I'll be lucky to get a 25% SR this month and maybe? Break even the next two months. The good news is the last 3 months I saved enough to pay for 3 weddings, and getting married before the end of the year will increase my tax return for 2015 around $8000 or so.

Trying. Really. Hard. To. Look. At. The. Big. Picture, as the next few months will be rough financially.

You are doing great. Just keep breathing!

[Bracken_Joy]

Have a $1500 surgery for my dog this month

We're there with you too.

And FWIW, we got married in June and I think the month cost us like $8k total or something... also had overlapping rents that month. But our savings rate went back up, and we did a "No Buy July" which rocked. You can do it! =)

[TheBuddha]

I'm in! Goals in November:

• Bump emergency fund from $3500 to $6500
• Live on less than $1k
• Publish Udemy course and related website
• Make substantial progress on eBook, if not finish it altogether

[serra]

I'm glad the challenge finally got you to come out and join! Jump in- the water is great =D And congrats on the pregnancy!

Re: the clothing. Be sure to look for Mom's groups on FB for your area and see if you have a local chapter of the Buy Nothing Group. I see a lot of maternity and clothes for little ones get traded around quite a bit. Perfection is the enemy of frugality (see this great post: http://www.frugalwoods.com/2015/07/13/perfection-is-the-enemy-of-frugality/ ), so see if you can get creative and find some "good enough" type solutions!

You have an awesome savings rate, though, so well done! It's always fun to keep trying to optimize further though.

Thanks for the welcome and suggestions -- I'll definitely try those avenues. My husband is less on board with frugality so my savings rate is for my finances only -- so not quite as good as it appears -- but I hope to optimize my own piece as much as possible before asking him to make changes.

[Eric222]

Have a $1500 surgery for my dog this month, which is more than all his vet bills the last 11 years combined probably. Need to purchase my fiances wedding band for our wedding coming up, thankfully she just found one $500 cheaper than what I was going to pick out. Also have various other upcoming wedding costs this month and next month. I'll be lucky to get a 25% SR this month and maybe? Break even the next two months. The good news is the last 3 months I saved enough to pay for 3 weddings, and getting married before the end of the year will increase my tax return for 2015 around $8000 or so.

Trying. Really. Hard. To. Look. At. The. Big. Picture, as the next few months will be rough financially.

If in a very expensive patch, you are going to have 25% SR one month and no negative months (or even slightly negative months)  - your big picture is rosy indeed.

[Eric222]

...
Live on less than $1k.
...

I'm impressed and amazed that you can aim at living on 66% of my rent.  Nice work.

[Bracken_Joy]

I'm glad the challenge finally got you to come out and join! Jump in- the water is great =D And congrats on the pregnancy!

Re: the clothing. Be sure to look for Mom's groups on FB for your area and see if you have a local chapter of the Buy Nothing Group. I see a lot of maternity and clothes for little ones get traded around quite a bit. Perfection is the enemy of frugality (see this great post: http://www.frugalwoods.com/2015/07/13/perfection-is-the-enemy-of-frugality/ ), so see if you can get creative and find some "good enough" type solutions!

You have an awesome savings rate, though, so well done! It's always fun to keep trying to optimize further though.

Thanks for the welcome and suggestions -- I'll definitely try those avenues. My husband is less on board with frugality so my savings rate is for my finances only -- so not quite as good as it appears -- but I hope to optimize my own piece as much as possible before asking him to make changes.

We have several forum members who retired on their own, while their spouse still works. For people with separate finances, it can work to track separately.

[Eric222]

I've already had a small challenge failure.

I'm buying a bike trailer, I found one that fits my needs and isn't too expensive. 

Also, I've decided I'm going to bite the bullet and buy studded road bike tires and fenders for my road bike.  I LOVE biking everywhere and not driving/taking the bus too much.

These are all MMM-approved purchases, right?  I should still be able to make 50% SR...

[DrSweden]

September was a great success. I saved 67% of my net salery. That is with a average of 42% tax in Sweden. On average 50% savings ratio. Next month will not be as good. We are going to buy a smart-tv.

[snacky]

I've already had a small challenge failure.

I'm buying a bike trailer, I found one that fits my needs and isn't too expensive. 

Also, I've decided I'm going to bite the bullet and buy studded road bike tires and fenders for my road bike.  I LOVE biking everywhere and not driving/taking the bus too much.

These are all MMM-approved purchases, right?  I should still be able to make 50% SR...

those are investments, as they will reduce your costs. I vote yes.
(this is a democracy, right?)

[TheBuddha]

...
Live on less than $1k.
...

I'm impressed and amazed that you can aim at living on 66% of my rent.  Nice work.

Thanks - I can only do it because I'm technically homeless :) I consider it a huge benefit of my job to be able to live in my truck (OTR truck driver). As long as I'm on the road working, which is nearly always, my expenses are next to nothing.

[Melissa]

I'm in this month. Now that the fall sports season is over we will be home more and I will ramp up the cooking again. Trying to find a way to keep food costs down, but with three teenagers it's becoming increasingly difficult.

I am the one who hosts Thanksgiving, so no travel expenses. Just extra food cost 😝

I have a tendency to buy craft items I don't end up using so my goal is to buy absolutely nothing while I work on Christmas projects. I'm also selling off some old supplies I no longer need/want.

There are some clothing items that I think I need but I will hold off on buying them this month until I go through the closet, dresser, and bins (stored in the basement) to see if I might already have something else suitable. Or I can just put them on my Christmas list since my parents still insist on going crazy every year

[Tigerpine]

I'm going to try again this month.  Savetember was great; Stocktober not so much.

Goal:
Savings rate of 40% or more

Known challenges:
Costs related to my car (tax, repairs, etc.)
Newly acquired expense category:  travel.  I plan to be buying a plane ticket to the West coast soon, which will be a blow financially thanks to the addition of hotel, car rental, etc. expenses, but if it works out with the Lady of the West, it will be very much worthwhile!

Anticipated 'Help'
I'm visiting my parents the week of Thanksgiving, so expenses should be minimal that week.
No big ticket expenses forseen for this month other than travel.

[cityfolks]

I'm in. October was a pretty hectic month for us, so I'd like a month to settle.

My goal is to curb discretionary spending, specifically eating out/convenience food/booze. Usually this isn't an issue but I took my eye off the ball last month.

Based on past experience limiting our eating out shouldn't be an issue ... BUT I have to guard against an exploding grocery budget. Between our CSA ending this week (*sniff*) and Thanksgiving-related spending, there's the possibility to go a little nuts and little extra attention here could go a long way.

I have a few "known" expenses on the books. Our cat went in for a checkup Monday, which we do budget for. I have an upcoming haircut appointment, and will probably need to gas up my car before the month is over. Finally: a candle. (Yes, that last one is pretty lame, but I usually get a pine-y scented candle in November since we don't get a Christmas tree and I miss the scent.)

The difference between our expenses on discretionary spending and groceries last month and this month is mentally earmarked for our moving fund.

[kookiekittie]

I would love to have some of the savings rates on here. I'm doing a nospendber month more out of necessity than anything else.  My husband has been out of work because of a back injury so this month we're going to live mostly off of my part-time jobs I do around my school schedule. We have around $2000 to work with and half of that goes to monthly bills, leaving $1000 for saving/spending.  I budgeted $100 for groceries(produce and dairy only), $100 for my medications, $200 for my car/gas (not very mustachian, but I commute 30 miles each way to school for the next 1 1/2 years), and $150  for my cats since they just had their annual vet visit yesterday. So if I spend nothing else I can put $450 back into our emergency fund (23% SR). The only other expense is my birthday, but i have a birthday fund tucked away for that :)

[snacky]

i'm in.
November is a pretty cheap month in snackyland - no birthdays, holidays, major events. so let's do this.

Scheduled Expenses:
-I will be kind to myself and permit takeout 2x this month, to be used when I had a very bad day.
-getting family portrait done - worth the cost, imo.
-several holiday gifts are on alerts, so if they cost below $x I will buy them.
-I got 2/3 of an ikea sink/ vanity for a great price, not I have to buy the last part. hopefully not for full price, but with the savings on the other parts I may just pay for it and get on with my life. one bucket of paint and some work next weekend and i'll have a new-looking bathroom. If I find something very cheaply I may also replace the fugly light fixture in there while i'm at it.

Challenges:
-I have a weakness for lunches out, and several friends working near me that like having lunch with me. this month I will propose free lunchtime activities, and if sit-down is needed I will suggest coffee instead of lunch. 100% brown bag this month.

Advantages:
it's November, the most boring of months.

update: committing on this thread works! several times I've felt the urge to grab a coffee/ sandwich/ snack when I was out and then thought about having to come clean about it here... and didn't buy anything. i'm going to estimate $30 saved. not huge, but also not nothing.

also a sale on video games expired before I actually bought anything. i'll still buy these games as xmas presents for the snacklets, but maybe black Friday will have better savings?

[Bracken_Joy]

Went slightly over the predicted "restaurant" budget when we got drinks out with a friend, since we picked up their drink as well. So $38/30 budgeted. Not the end of the world though, and I think the expense was worth it for the socialization.

update: committing on this thread works! several times I've felt the urge to grab a coffee/ sandwich/ snack when I was out and then thought about having to come clean about it here... and didn't buy anything. i'm going to estimate $30 saved. not huge, but also not nothing.

Woohoo! Well done. I absolutely agree- accountability helps a lot.

[Dollar Slice]

I had a $1000+ emergency expense in October that's making me sad, plus a family birthday and a $50 gift to a friend in trouble, so I thought I should jump in here and try to ramp up saving a little in November. October's SR actually went into the red :-(

Most of my expense categories are fixed (internet, rent, transit pass) or already on a very tight leash (utilities, laundry) or are the only thing keeping me sane (hobby/social). I think the place I have the best shot at improvement is food. So mainly I want to try to challenge myself on my food budget - both groceries and eating out.

Challenges: I have a bunch of days in a row where I will not be home, or have access to a refrigerator/kitchen, from about 10AM to 12:30AM, so convenience food and fast food have been happening. Not sure that is entirely avoidable but I want to at least try to keep the costs down without killing myself with unhealthy food. I've also been dealing with pain that kicks in with too much walking/standing, which is making it tough to do any major cooking on the weekends.

Advantages: I'll be at my parents' house for Thanksgiving for a few days and will be sent home with leftovers :-)   And I have a couple of gift cards for purveyors of food with a bit of money left on them. But they're not really such healthy food (one has some OK choices, the other is Five Guys) so I don't want to lean too heavily on the gift cards.

[serra]

The first week of the month is behind us! How is everyone doing?

I was pretty motivated by this thread and stuck to the plan of packed lunches, public transit and generally avoiding places where frivolous money could be spent. I also stocked up on some staples at Costco to avoid the temptations of takeout/dinner out. My husband and did go out to lunch to celebrate a milestone, but it was well worth it.

Here's my outlook for the coming week:

Challenges
- I'll need to keep building the habits of packed lunches and public transit, which are still newer for me.
- I have a social event to attend -- I will spend money on a meal here, but will try to keep it lower.
- I'll need to keep fitting into my clothes and/or find some creative solutions here.

Advantages
- A bunch of great books are now available for me at the library, which should provide hours of free education and entertainment.
- I have some time off next week, so no temptations to buy lunch/coffee or use expensive transportation then.

 

[cityfolks]

Things are going fairly well here so far. I did pick up a few groceries today, but all fresh and basic pantry items - fruit, veg, milk, dried beans. I forgot one thing I'll need in the coming week, but generally feel I covered the basics with nothing that wasn't part of a planned meal.

I made a big pan of shrimp biryani the other night, all with pantry ingredients - and when I realized I was out of two spices, I didn't immediately go to replace them, but tried a few substitutions instead. Maybe not quite as flavorful as usual, but the leftovers make great lunches. I made a cranberry brown sugar pie tonight, but those were all pantry/household ingredients (well, I subbed milk for half-and-half), and I got a handful of books and movies from the library to distract me from weekend spending urges.

A last minute party invite to see a friend in town might mean I use a little more gas than I'd planned, but that's a pretty minor wrinkle in the scheme of things.

[Bracken_Joy]

Broke down and got Starbucks yesterday. Ugh. It's a small thing in terms of the money (DH used cash he had, and I got a small one), but it's more the "weakness" aspect. I hadn't gotten Starbucks in over 6 weeks. This was absolutely a stress thing- unexpected trip to family, 2 hrs each way. Bad road noise in the car, so when my supervisor called to arrange handing off paperwork that evening, I just asked DH to pull over at a Starbucks. It's always stress and breaks in my routine that get me. This trip will also be reflected in gas costs. My mom pointed out something interesting though, which would help my gas costs- for the contracts where I'm not driving far enough to get the gas stipend, I might be able to take a gas deduction? Not sure, but I'm certainly going to look into it. I thought you could only do that if you were self-employed.

Brother already came through with all but $100 of his share of rent/utilities, so that's nice. Coupled with my new contract, this should be a higher income month. In spite of Dog's surgery, we're still on track to save $2k to the house fund.

New (to us) car is definitely going to have to happen next month, so my Dec(imateSpending)ember or whatever it's gonna be named will be rough.

[choppingwood]

Extra income this month because the pay for my part-time job for October came a few days late (into November). It also included 4 extra afternoons for training. Some of it was used to pay the bill for my Best Western night due to a snowstorm. The rest has been set aside towards the winter tires.

This week has very low on spending. I'm enjoying some quiet time with books and movies from the library and I'm starting to plan for 2016. Meals have been made from the pantry and freezer.

The forecast is for sunshine this week, so I'm going to do some yardwork, even though it it is pretty cool.

[Nancy]

Maybe Desaveber? Not my strong suit.

So far so good over here.  I had to have some medical imaging done. Not sure of the cost, but that's why I have savings.

[choppingwood]

Broke down and got Starbucks yesterday. Ugh. It's a small thing in terms of the money (DH used cash he had, and I got a small one), but it's more the "weakness" aspect. I hadn't gotten Starbucks in over 6 weeks.

This seems to be really symbolic to you.... Are you worried that you'll go back to having it all the time if you have it once? Or do you want a life where you never have Starbucks?

I buy coffee out about once a month now, after years of buying it daily, but I can't say I agonize over it. I know how much I don't spend on it anymore and that's good enough for me!!