@Kitti I totally agree. Once you can outcook most inexpensive restaurants it just isn’t worth it! I’ve been filling up my freezer with readymade meals, do you do a regular freezer rotation? I used to fall into a pit of delivery when I wasn’t feeling well until I made freezer cooking/rotation more of a priority.
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I have not replenished my freezer meals stash, I should get working on that! Lately I’ve just been freezing chopped veggies.
Good: making food at home. Making coffee at home even though our coffee machine is broken (again). Yesterday I had a friend and kid over and made us all lunch rather than going out.
Bad: impulse purchasing seeds online.
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I’ve effed up real hard on no Spendtember. About $170 yesterday on home repair stuff and $160 on pillows for Greyman (who hasn’t bought a new pillow in a decade). Hired a plumber for a $200 job that isn’t strictly necessary. Meeting a contractor for a job I’m guessing will be another $200. So this week will be like an $800 week.
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I know that paying bills is not part of no spending but ugggh I paid so many today and it hurts. September is a time when a lot of our annual things hit and being an adult is no fun.
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This week was a success! We spent more on groceries than usual, but our favorites were on sale so we stocked up and now have a full freezer. Other than that, we didn’t spend any money.
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Fail: Yesterday went out to eat. I had forgotten we made these plans to do so.
Win: had a friend meet up over coffee at Starbucks, but found a long forgotten gift card so didn’t spend any money.
Also win: didn’t buy the thing I wanted on Amazon. Instead I put it in the cart to see if I want it at end of month.
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I took my keepcup out today but waited until I got home and made my own coffee.
Besides the train fare to and from the toddler’s (bill billed - ty public healthcare) doctor’s appointment, I had a no spend day 
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I ordered a $4 piece for my Halloween costume that I didn’t want to risk not arriving in time if I ordered it in October. I’m also going to buy some pajamas today because mine aren’t warm enough.
Food spending has been great this week as we’ve been using what’s in the pantry and freezer. It will last until Saturday when I have a potluck to attend and will need ingredients for that. But that should be the only expensive for that get together!
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A couple other one-off bills ended up in this month: umbrella insurance (usually Oct but a promotion made it cheaper to pay this month) and a craft fair entry fee, but still holding out on most other personal spending.
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Today we bought paint samples for $30 as we are in a mad rush to get the house prepped for the stucco in 10 days. Looks like we will maybe need to buy 1 more sample.
Also bought food for be potluck and accidentally bought the wrong canned beans, so will need to head back to the store tomorrow and get the right kind.
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And that’s the end of the month!
We did ok with groceries with just getting 2 new things. We usually try a new thing as soon as I notice it, so that’s big improvement.
We did terrible with going out to eat twice. Usually we don’t go out to eat at all, so that was a fail.
I successfully avoided all of the garage sales that have been going on around town.
I did get better at adding things to my list instead of my cart. I still really need to work on that, but I can see how having a day a week where I make my purchases being beneficial to reducing impulse purchases. That might cut down on window shopping too.
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My wrap-up of the month. Longest streak was 3 days in a row of not buying anything and I did that a few times. The only items I’m concerned about are the books. I want to get better at looking for books in the library or in their digital offerings first. It was pretty clear that I bought some stuff because I’m housebound and would want to buy it eventually anyway, but keeping my mental health good is really important. I couldn’t work on my existing projects like I’d planned as hurting myself early in the month meant I couldn’t pick up anything large or sit for long periods. The challenge definitely cut down our eating out, I didn’t want to give in unless it felt really necessary!
Bought:
Household/family items
- seeds, pre-planned purchase of cucumbers and 2 flowers $12
- Food out: coffees & scones at farmer’s market, burgers for dinner, pizza for dinner twice
- Shoes for kiddo
Personal items:
- added items to OMD delivery
- bought 4 kids clothing patterns on special
- patreon of $11
- 3 books: 2 romance novels, barefoot investor book
- Education expenses: climate change book “drawdown”, Datacamp subscription (took advantage of a sale)
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I’m going to go through my numbers tonight and post later. I think I did ok but could have improved in a few places.
Overall we did really well with no spending, I’m generally pleased. We had 2 lunches out for H and one ice cream date. The lunches were work lunches because we had insufficient leftovers for him to take so that’s not bad. It’s been higher before.
We pretty much eliminated all other extra spending. I did spend $18 at a consignment sale for Bobbin, but it was clothes for her next 6 months which will keep us from buying retail. So better for our wallet and the environment!
I did more baking instead of going out for treats, I used up more pantry ingredients doing that too. I was also more mindful of grocery spending which was helpful.
We’ve had some big annual (and one giant one time bill) bills hit us in September which were either paid or will be paid in October so we are extending the no spend for the next month to help soften the blow. I feel like it will be pretty simple to extend because I didn’t feel deprived at all so I’m looking forward to no spend + budgetober
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