It was back to reality and work today. I packed all my meals and drinks so no $$ spent there. I had to stop and fill up my gas tank so there was $42 spent. I also spent $32.60 at Kroger.

Tomorrow night I will go to my daughter's basketball games so I know I will spend $5.00 to get in. I have my lunch for work already packed and plan to take drinks and snacks for the game so I won't spend at the good ole concession stand. Since I won't have time to cook I may end up using a Dominoes gift card to pick up a pizza after the game. It is so hard not to spend on basketball nights!

I only spent .50 on a Coke during break today. One of my coworkers paid me $2 for buying her some rolls at the bread store last week. I will look through my stockpile and make a grocery list for the week tomorrow.

Ajmom here is an idea to help you decide. Suze Orman suggests before a big purchase, you practice for six months. Take the amount of money it would cost each month and make a formal payment to your savings account each month. Calculate how much you would spend on food, health care cost, clothes, diapers, daycare, etc each month and each month put that into savings account as a practice. At the end of six months you will be able to see if you can afford another child and you will have money in the savings account.

Nice job monkeystyle!

Today I did good in that I brought my lunch to work instead of buy. However DH car has problems again so we had to share a ride to work. He thought he temporarily fixed radiator but he didn't. It has to he replaced. Plan is to get his car down to out of town where my parents live. DH dad will help use a dolly and get it down there. My dad is mechanic and ordered cheap radiator for us for 90.xx. DH and my dad will work on car this Saturday and get it fixed. Usually radiator is easy to fix but in DH particular car the rate is 2.8 hours to fix, per my dad computer system for car repair. It will be more money spent on the part but hopefully save us in long run. I now want to try to sell our car myself rather than trade in. I should be able to get more money for it that way.

Tonight we went car shopping. Ugh. DH wants more of a car than we can afford. Agent got anything yet. DH really wanted that car. But it wasn't a good deal and I want to feel really sure when we make a big purchase like that. Don't want to rush into it.

We did eat out tonight. But when we got home DH cooked so we have food for meals tomorrow.

I'm Alicia Wife to Eric Mom to Mady And Lady

Well its day 2 of my first month of having an actual budget, and its blown! I have not even left my house yet this year. A friend knows someone with a deer processing business about an hour from here. They have a couple of deer that were not picked up, and we can get them for the processing fee.

So, we will be getting about 60+lbs of a variety of deer meat for $100. That is half of our monthly food budget, but I think it will be a good investment. I hear its yummy, but I've only had deer 1x before.

I guess I have 2 no spend days under my belt.

I think I am going to change it to days of no extra spending.
I dont see the benefit to me personally to me for no spend days. If I am frugal everyday, it makes no difference (other than maybe a bit of gas) if I spend a little on a bunch of days, or more on fewer days. I need to figure out what EXACTLY will work for me...

Hello all... I am going to try this once again. Last year was just terrible for a budget, so something has to give.
2013 goals
Pay 10,000 on car. That will leave very little left. Over the car payments.
Pay off credit cards. And then, not use them!!
Use cash instead of debit card. The card has gotten very easy to swipe and I hope using cash will be harder to part with.
10 no spend days this month. Today was day 2!!! Yay!!

On a side note, does anyone use the envelope system and if you do, what are your thoughts?

Hello & Happy New Year 2 all. I've been on WUC, but prob only came in this forum a couple of
times. It has piqued my interest, and like other forums within WUC I am confident it is a supportive place 2 hang.
I am a wreck w/spending - more emotional at this point - so I am going to crawl in. For January, I am going to try for 3 no-spend days. Unfortunately, i haven't calculated a budget, but tha'ts part of my issue; I am disorganized.
For 2013, I plan on spending less, couponing more and saving more. My car loan will be paid off by July and I wish to put that FULL amount towards savings.

I cut my DH DS and Mine but DD (age 7) wants hers done a special way
she wants her sides fanned and her banges have to be short cause she wears an eye patch so she wont let me do it it..I accidently gaped her in the front once..HEHEHE but she wont let me forget it

Whoooo hoo yesterday was a no spend day for me. I had been counting both my husband and myself together. This year Im only taking responsibility for myself (since he won't cooperate). Had a major upset yesterday, got my first payroll check of 2013. It was short the 2% soc security (expecoted that) but I did not expect my Fed withholding to double. One of my coworkers cried all day because she said she just did not know what she was going to do.

Although I was a little sick about it, my husband gets his today I decided to wait and check his out and see if his Fed with holding doubled also. I make $9.00 + commission. I had over $100 taken just in fed yesterday.

Today Im going to have a vet bill. My 8 mo old cat has a hurt back leg. My husband said he probably decided to venture upthe road in another males territory. Last night he became listless and took no food or water. I gave him gaterade with a straw. Took the wait see approach Tue, Wed but he does not seem to be improving. Putting this expense under Murphy. Other than that no spend

working my magic on very little money

Lisha: welcome! baby steps toward getting organized will help you get more no spend days in the future. I take 30 min each morning with my cofee and mentally organize my day and mysekf. I only pay bills on Friday. I have a yahoo calendar set up labeled bills that feeds into my personal yahoo calendar. I turn this one off so that it does not clutter up my personal calendar. The bill calendar sends me an email the week before a bill is due. When I pay it I detete the email. Yesterday I printed out a paper copy and plan to post it on the ref so my husband can see it. I swear the man does not know anything about what we owe..

working my magic on very little money

Good Morning!

MMW you are making me nervous about how much is coming out of my paycheck! Guess I will find out on the 15th, but if it is double that is going to kill me!

Well yesterday was a spend day, but it was out of the leftover money in the envelope, so not so bad. Today will be a spend day, by choice. I need to make stops at Kroger, Publix and CVS to do my shopping this week and I have decided it is just too much to do all in one night like I usually do. 2013 is the year of making things a little easier for me so I will stop at CVS tonight. I have $8 ECBs to use and want to do the Pepsi deal (buy $30 get $10 ECB). With the amount of Pepsi we go through in my house this is a must do deal.

Off to start my day. I am slammed at work, it just doesn't seem that I can catch up. I thought we would be slow the last few weeks and it just isn't working out that way. I might have to put in a significant amount of OT to get myself caught up.