BLOGGER TEMPLATES - TWITTER BACKGROUNDS »

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Day 6 of NO SPEND MONTH

We are 6 days in to NO SPEND MONTH. I am not gonna lie, already this is hard!! I went out yesterday to take my daughter something and I pulled into the gas station where I always stop and get a soda when I go out, pulled right back out again when I realized nope no spend. Then I argued with myself on the way to my daughters, it is only $.75!!! But that is the whole point of no spend month, we nickel and dime ourselves to death. I did not get the soda and I lived. By the time I got home I was quite happy that I did not spend the $.75 and I did not drink the soda for health reasons. I sat down last night and made plans for when we travel on the 10th to my ultrasound, we always go to eat out when we travel to bartlesville. Not this time. I packed most of the lunch last night, the non perishables. Then on the morning before we go I will pack the sandwhiches and drinks. I am doing the small amount of grocery shopping I had budgeted in while we are there at Aldi's. I have my list ready for that too, fruits and veggies and stuff I knew I could not stockpile. That is it. We are only taking enough cash for the groceries and the amount we budgeted for gas to fill up there ( gas is $.20-$.30 cheaper a gallon in Oklahoma). There won't be too big of a problem of having extra money with the 10th paycheck because most of it is already allocated to bills, With only our envelopes of cash left.....
Food-$50 ( Our extra fridge died so I can't keep as much milk on hand as I need so I bumped this up from $25)
Gas-$60
Zoo-$10 ( this is our reward at the end of the month for not spending, We have $40 saved in change and If we add $10 per paycheck we will have enough to go to Tulsa to the zoo)
Copays for medicine-$40
Just in case or if not used Savings-$50
That is it, The rest is gone to bills.
We gathered all our bills and went through them all last week. We paid $8,000 in debt last year and hope to double that this year. We have $32,000 left. If we could pay $16,000 this year we could do it one more year and be completely debt free. We would have to pay off around $1600 a month in bills for the next 10 months to hit the $16,000. I am not including the last 2 months that we have paid off. With no house payment I think this attainable. $6,500 of the first $16,000 is the balance of our car, we want to get this paid off this year so we can lower our insurance and interest. Plus we know that in November we will add another $2000 to our medical bills for the C-section copay for this baby, That is if everything goes well. Although we have thought out and written everything down, we are trying not to think too far ahead. Just living in the month. Fact is with 6 kids anything can happen at any time. Someone like last year could freakishly fall of the diningroom table chair, Hit his chin exactly perfectly on the table and split his chin wide open and need stitches ( yes Jacob you being him) sigh. This required us to go to the ER which is sickening on copay. That cost as much as having a baby. Then between my hubby's nasal polyp surgery in Novemeber and the 2 year olds thyroglossal duct surgery in January these two things added another $1800 and $1500 to our debt. There is no way to predict this stuff. But if we are debt free we could easily pay these things with cash when they were to come up.
So as for the first 6 days, Yes it is hard, I tried not to look at the grocery store ads when they come in as not to tempt me. We would never starve, I have stockpiled 3 months worth of food. I have stockpiled 2 months worth of household-paper towels, toilet paper, diapers and anything else we might need. I shopped for 2 years at walgreens with coupons and have 88,000 bottles of shampoo and personal items over the counter medicines in every shape and size, vitamins, foil, etc. I made up (3) 5 gallon buckets of laundry soap. I printed a list from online of substitues in case I ran out of something. I left myself no excuse to run to the store.
I will update NO SPEND MONTH again after we get back on the 10th and let ya know how we did!!!! Happy bill paying and being closer to debt free, Michelle

5 comments:

Mrs. S said...

Good job not buying the soda! It's hard to deny ourselves our little treats, especially when they're not so expensive. But you're right, the end of the month is where these little things really show their true weight in our budget. I enjoy reading your blog. Keep up the good work!

momtoqts said...

Good for you!

frugalredneck said...

Thanks ladies, This might sound impossible to some but it can be done. The biggest thing I am learning by doing this NO SPEND, Is truly how much we nickel and dime ourselves to death. It is kinda making me sick to think how much we(excuse my french) pissed away. The true test will be when we travel the 50 miles there and 50 miles back trip to the Dr. on Wednesday. I will be alone with the kids for this trip and I am trying to be as prepared as possible. Being trapped in car for a bit with that many kids can drive you nuts and they can take over your brain and make you do things bahahahaha just to keep them quiet. I am ready, I am armed, I can do it!!!!!!!!!! Thanks again sooooo much!!!! Michelle

Jeff9 said...

I know a way to save more on toilet paper than any coupon or special. This covers all the bases = saves you money, helps the environment, helps your health, makes you feel better, it's so easy to do and it costs less than $50.00; Save money and the Earth and be clean at the same time! Add Bathroom Bidet Sprayers to all your bathrooms. I think Dr. Oz on Oprah said it best: "if you had pee or poop on your hand, you wouldn't wipe it off with paper, would you? You'd wash it off” Available at www.bathroomsprayers.com with these you won't even need toilet paper any more, just a towel to dry off! Don’t worry, you can still leave some out for guests and can even make it the soft stuff without feeling guilty. It's cheap and can be installed without a plumber; and runs off the same water line to your toilet. You'll probably pay for it in a few months of toilet paper savings. As for water use a drought is always a concern and must be dealt with prudently but remember the water use of industrial users far exceeds the water use of household users and in the case of toilet paper manufacture it is huge. The pollution and significant power use from that manufacturing process also contributes to global warming so switching to a hand bidet sprayer and lowering your toilet paper use is very green in multiple ways.

frugalredneck said...

Ummm Ty jeff, That could definetly be of use to some, But I could not at this point do the sprayer, I have 5 year old twins with severe adhd and already deathly afraid of the bathroom this would upset them. Also not to mention them spraying down the bathroom. I have contemplated though making my own toilet paper wipes and washing them, But not there yet. Thanks for the idea though. Michelle