September No Spend Challenge

For the month of September I decided to do a "No Spend" Challenge. I've tried in the past but only made it a few days because I didn't understand how they work. Now that I've done one, I decided to do one each of these last few months of 2022. Obviously I'm not going to be doing one in December. I think for Christmas this year I'm just going to give my kids cash but they will still be getting stockings.

This month I am counting anything not spent on my budget as a "Spend Loss".

I am tracking what I spend daily, how much total spent for the month, how much was spent outside the budge, and whether this month is a No Spend Win or No Spend Loss. I will also be taking notes to see what I can work on for my next No Spend Challenge.

I am going to track how I do daily and we will all see how I did for the month long challenge.

With no further ado, let's get down to the nitty gritty. My monthly budget needs currently sit at $4,946.98 which means I need to make no less than $1,236.95 weekly, or $164.90 daily on a 30 day month. I do have $443 monthly that I receive in child support so that does help. I'm not counting it. I want to be providing for all of our needs without using the child support so that if we have a month that I don't receive it we aren't in trouble. Plus in January child support will drop to $312 monthly because my oldest turns 18 in December and will age out.

September breakdown: September was a win.

Now onto October




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What have I done in October to get ahead?

The things I have done in October 2022 to get ahead have been not that many. But I figure if I start small I will grow big. Versus starting big and ending small. October I did a no spend challenge for the month. I only spent money on bills and envelopes.  Microsoft Bing Rewards. Every morning I get onto my Bing and I do my web searches, phone searches, and little points items the day has to offer. Currently at the end of October I have earned 17,263 points towards my 13,000 points needed for a $10 Amazon gift card. I will keep saving my points until December 31st and then I am going to be cashing out for Amazon cards to use towards financial books, budget binders, budget binder supplies, and the like. Then I will earn all of next year and cash on yearly on December 31st to see how much I actually make in a year. I have been scanning receipts into my Fetch Rewards app. I am currently at 12,966 points of my 50,000 points needed for a $50 Amazon gift card. I ended up leaving my job ...
Read more

Getting Started

 Getting started for me meant sitting down and figuring out what monthly recurring bills I have. Simple, I know. But for some reason I hadn't taken the time to write them down and things were falling through the cracks. It took getting a disconnect notice to realize I hadn't paid my electric bill for 2 months. I'm pretty sure that I'll have a notice on my internet bill this next cycle. I came up with the following list: Rent, 5 credit cards (trying to build my credit score), Savings, Paying off debt, Emergency Fund, Car Replacement fund, Pedicure (trying something out so this has become a need), Electric company, Car Insurance, Storage Unit (which will become the clothing fund in a month), Internet, Spending for me, Car Repairs, Family Fun, Garbage, Verizon (for my oldest), Household supplies, Tires, and Gas. Each of these has its own envelope with a sticky note on it stating how much it gets paid monthly. I also have a master list that states how much the item is paid ...
Read more

Unit Price Sam's Club comparison DISH SOAP

 One of the ways that I save money is by buying in bulk at Sam's Club. Here is an item that I buy at Sam's Club in bulk to save money. Dish Soap. I can save money some weeks by couponing but for those weeks that I am not able to coupon I have a gallon (128oz) jug that I can refill my kitchen bottle from. I pay $5.98/gal and that is equal to $0.046 per ounce. Let's call it $0.05 per ounce. Dish Soap at Walmart. I can get Ajax 14oz for $1.24 or $0.088 per oz that we'll just call $0.09 per ounce. This is the cheapest option for Walmart. I suggest you buy a bottle of soap at the store and then buy the gallon from Sam's Club and refill. By doing it this way, with these prices this is what you'll pay if you buy both bottles and then just refill vs buying just the Walmart bottle every time. Refilling is $1.24 for the Ajax plus $5.98 for the gallon. That equals out to $7.22 for 142 oz. In order to get the same amount of dish soap you'd have to buy 11 bottles of the ...
Read more