Spending freeze challenge- week one!

[aspentosh]

Alright, let's get this started. Here's the OP if you want to go over your goals again.

[aspentosh]

My goals:
-all food to no more than $500- Currently at $66.
-only eat out 4x per month MAX- Currently at 1x.
-nothing for DD, even if it is a killer deal- Holding steady.

My exceptions:
-birthday party for DD ($200 or less ideally)- my mom is hosting a small family GTG since I am not up for a party. So all I am doing is dessert.
-redoing powder room ($1500 or less out of pocket)- looks like this will be less than $1000 now out of pocket. I bought tile for $185 yesterday and they start work on Saturday.

[ilikedonuts]

I changed my goals to $650 total for groceries, toiletries, and eating out. Its a lofty goal for us, but we have a bunch of extra medical bills this month and I'd rather pay them off in full and not have to touch anything that's already marked for savings.

ETA: I also don't want to buy anything for the kids at all other then the ballet shoes I just had to buy DD2 because I couldn't find any decent ones used on our swap.

[ilikedonuts]

aspentosh , I'm sorry about your dog.  (heart)

[hermione]

Sorry about your sweet dog, aspentosh.

[suzubell]

I'm in!
-- Eating out will be limited to using gift cards from Christmas or an occasional half-price pizza night at the place right down the street.
-- Keep groceries to no more than $125/week.
-- Nothing for the kids expect diapers and food.
-- No new clothes for me or DH. I need to lose the last semester's stress weight anyway.
-- No Target. Or Amazon. None.
-- No new house purchases.

We are prepping for DH to quit his full time job and start his own business in March, in addition to floating two mortgages until our old house sells. Ugh.

[suzubell]

Sorry about your pup, Aspen.

[moopoint17]

My overall goal is to keep my personal spending down. I'm thinking about tackling the family budget later in the year. But for now:

- No clothes purchases this month (I usually pay for the boys' clothes because I'm a shopaholic - their drawers have no more room). We have a few vacations planned for later in the winter and we'll need some things for then, but nothing to be bought this month.
- No purchases for the house. If I need something (which I seriously doubt I will), then I will put it in my wishlist and re-evaluate next month.
- I will continue to bring my breakfast to work and will bring my lunch 3x a week. I work from home on Fridays but I'm still allowing 1 outside meal a week to get me away from my desk.

[teatimefor2]

I didn't have a chance to comment in the OP, other than stating I'm in.

Goals for this week:
- No additional groceries as I went shopping this morning for the week.
- No Starbucks for me
- No lunches to be purchased by DH (I just asked him and this is what he said)

[megs193]

- No alcohol - So far so good.  I'm sure this one will get harder as the month goes on.
- Keep eating out budget below $200 - Currently at $15 and I have all the meals planned and groceries ordered for the next 6 days.  
- No toys - I spent an hour trying to re-organize the play room to find a place for all the new toys and barely made a dent.  This one should be easy to stick to.

[nessness]

My goals:

-Nothing for DD except necessities

-Nothing for me except a planned laptop purchase

-No alcohol purchases unless hosting guests or bringing it to a party.

So far, so good on all counts. I haven't bought anything except gas all weekend. I'm going to Target today but will limit it to necessities. Still haven't bought the laptop because I can't make up my mind what I want.

[sh10]

I'm sorry to hear about your dog.

My goals:
Stick to our eating out budget.
Use Christmas money for one nice date with DH.
Nothing for DS except underwear as we think about PT.
Plan for a low budget bday party for DS, I think I'm going with a truck theme so I can use a lot of what we already have.

So far:
We spent a lot at the grocery store today but actually planned several meals, so that should help with not eating out as much.

To do:
Make bday invites using tiny prints credit.

[pizzanight]

Joining. November and December were pretty insane between the holidays, a fundraiser the first weekend in Dec, and generally just going out a LOT.

Goals:

-No Amazon except S&S.
-Eat out no more than 10X this month (DH & I combined, including lunches out)
-No more clothes for anyone.

I think I'm going to start trying to list some things on Ebay. I used to sell on ThredUp but they haven't been taking anything lately and it's pissing me off.

[patbutcher]

So I spent $100 on groceries yesterday and then put smoke alarm needed replacing which was $72.
I also bought dd and I sandwiches which was $18.

Apart from that, I'm planning on not spending anymore this week

[quesyrah]

I'm sorry to hear about your dog

[ellipses84]

DH is on board and we are starting tomorrow. I actually spent all day shopping Saturday and did not buy a single thing, which was an incredible feat considering I usually want tons of stuff from the stores I went to.

- No restaurant meals for dinner or on weekends.
- Lunch at work no more than 1x/wk
- Starbucks no more than 1x/week
- No clothes or houseware purchases
- Avoid Target and Costco as much as possible, or send DH with a grocery list to stick to
- I've already purchased necessary gifts for the next month and will only need to pay for shipping a couple of them.

[redwino]

I'm soTry about your dog aspentosh

[redwino]

Goals:
No clothing purchases except DD's needed shoes.
No booze purchased.
Lunches out no more than 8 times this month.

[Deleted]

Here my goals:

No new new clothes for anyone until Spring. (I do have a shopping trip planned in 2 weeks, but I'm taking a $100.00 cash and when it's gone, it's gone. This was also preplanned).
Get my credit card balance back to 0. (it's really low interest and my balance is less than 2K so NBD, but I don't need that).

Generally make better decisions when buying stuff. We don't need "fun" right now, kwim?

I got a nice check from my inlaws yesterday so we're of to a good start!

[patbutcher]

Jan 4, 2016 6:36:54 GMT -5 minniemouse said:

Goals- bring lunch to work, or go home for lunch, every day. The exception is if we have visitors to the office and I am forced to go out. Although hopefully if that happens then company will pay.
- only buy what is absolutely necessary. I paid for a $10 kindle unlimited subscription already to keep my busy. Lol.
- try to buy only what we need at the grocery store, keeping it to around $650 for our family of 4.
- no sit down dinners, but take out once/week sweepstakes

What's sweepstakes?

[KaraOrNot]

My goals for this month are to:

1) Stick to our food budget.
2) No extra spending other than necessities.
3) Pay off Target card in full (we do every month, but I used it more than usual for holiday shopping).

[vtdiamond]

My goals are:
1) Bring Coffee and Lunch/Snacks to work at least 4 days/week
2) No clothes for the kids or me
3) Meal Plan to minimize ordering take out. Goal is to only order take out 5 times this month.

[gt7301b]

aspentosh, I'm sorry for your loss.

I'm only counting 2016 expenditures, we were still visiting family at the beginning of the week and went out for an already planned dinner on New Year's Eve.

Eating Out - Reduce spending, use gift cards/coupons. I grabbed lunch while running errands, but used a coupon
Home/Amazon Spending to $50 - Already super close to this one. I bought a bunch of after Christmas stuff at Target.

[lolo]

I'll be joining you guys next week on this since we have a vacation later this week.

Basically no clothes, meal plan to keep grocery costs below our budget, limit discretionary purchases.

[aspentosh]

Good- returned some Christmas gifts that didn't work out, so "saved" ~$50 there. Also returned some medicine we had bought for Mac that he obviously won't need, so "saved" $15 there.

Bad- ordered pizza last night for $15. So only three more eating out meals for the rest of the month.

[justjen]

Well., I've already spent a bunch of money, lol. BUT! Not as much as I would normally.

~$50 on 3 pairs of See Kai Run sale shoes (2 for M, 1 for L)
~$50 at Target on storage containers so I can clean up the kids' drawers, plus a few groceries. I DID NOT BUY ANYTHING CUTE. This was hard, lol
~$50 at Once Upon a Child to try some different brands of jeans for M, since I feel like pants never fit him right except for the Carters' PJ jeans; plus a cheapo denim skirt and tutu for L
~$50 at Carters on the above-referenced PJ jeans in this and the next size

But the more shameful one is:
~$100 for dinner and a movie with DH on Saturday. But after a loooong week, we really needed a break. NO regrets chicken.

So basically, clothing my children, plus a date. I think the kids should be set on clothes for awhile, with the possible exception of M needing some shirts, but we'll see.

My goals are:
-No random spending
-Not buying lunch

Exceptions are DH's 40th and M's 1st birthday, both this month.

[jessnpaul]

My goals:
- Lunch out only once per week (I added breakfast to this too as I often get it downstairs in the deli... so one breakfast and one lunch is my updated weekly goal)
- No shopping other than for necessary items

Well, I did get breakfast downstairs this morning (only $2 though) so that's my one breakfast out for the week. I did bring leftovers for lunch (speaking of which, I'm starving right now... need to go nuke!)

We plan on going food shopping tonight so I have food for the rest of the week.

Didn't spend anything all weekend! Have been keeping my trigger finger off the "Order" button on all websites ;-)

[simpsongal]

Late to the party here, but I'd like to join. I need to stop the money bleeding.

January Goals:
-No clothing, shoes, etc. purchase. No deal shall be so tempting that I cannot refuse. I spent so much in December thanks to that 10% cash back deal.
    So far so good.
-Eat the pantry/freezer. I have a ton in both, so if I can limit shopping to some fresh veggies, dairy, and fish, hopefully we can control grocery spending
    DH ordered pizza yesterday, but I've been sick and he doesn't cook.  But now we have lots of food to eat in the fridge.  No grocery store trips yet.
-NO AMAZON ORDERS. NOPE....unless COMPLETELY necessary (e.g., carbon monoxide detector, but we bought it last month - so ha!)
    Subscribe & save came yesterday - 3 things.  Lysol wipes, pouches, and baby advil.  I call that a win.
- No TJMaxx, Marshalls, etc.
    I credit my extreme head cold with the assist on this


Exceptions:
- bday presents for my in laws
    present purchased for MIL - thoughtful and not suuper $$.  FIL's will be like $150.
- décor for DS's 2nd bday party in early February, so I need to buy a few things. But I'll try to keep it under control.

[justjen]

Ugh, so I bought lunch.

But, in my defense, my stomach feels off, and I couldn't stomach the idea of the leftover chili I have for lunch.

This challenge is not looking promising

[aspentosh]

Jan 4, 2016 13:25:07 GMT -5 justjen said:

Ugh, so I bought lunch.

But, in my defense, my stomach feels off, and I couldn't stomach the idea of the leftover chili I have for lunch.

This challenge is not looking promising

We ALL have had those days and weeks. The point is to jump back on the challenge and contain it... You can do it!