Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Dgflorida wrote: Tue Sep 25, 2018 6:10 am I also have a limited amount I spend on gas. Same amount as you. Only in $10 parts.
I fill up once a month since I live in a rural area and never want to go below 1/2 tank.. I am lucky that my aide can drive me places ie to the Drs offices but at the same time I do like to get out and do my own thing..I wanted to smack a former friend when she said, " what is the big deal it is only .10 or 15 cents more a gallon." Spoken like someone who does not have a car or a budget.. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
BevMoore
Posts: 1012
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:04 pm

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by BevMoore »

I get my gas either at Sams Club or Costco. Not only is it $.40-.50 a gallon cheaper but I also get 3 to 5 % cashback on my credit cards. When you drive large vehicles that $.10 per gallon in gas can make a big difference.

Bev
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

BevMoore wrote: Tue Sep 25, 2018 1:52 pm I get my gas either at Sams Club or Costco. Not only is it $.40-.50 a gallon cheaper but I also get 3 to 5 % cashback on my credit cards. When you drive large vehicles that $.10 per gallon in gas can make a big difference.

Bev
I do not live anywhere near a Costco or a Sam's Club.. Wish I could take advantage of things like that but it would cost more in gas than what I would save to join one.. Glad you are able to take advantage of them and the cash back too. I gave up credit cards in 2015 but did take advantage of the cash back one when I could. Janet alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

It is close to the end of the month of Sept and except for going over by .76 cents this past week did well and stayed within the $22.00 goal that I had set for myself for groceries for the month of Sept. I do need to resupply basics that were used up this past month. I still have a lot of stored things that can be used but need to add meat to my budget for this coming month. Since I have used up all of my meat my fridge freezer it is now able to accommodate a larger amount of storage. I have an appointment to see my NP this afternoon. On the way to her office we will go about 4 miles off of the usual route and stop at a little market in another town. They are well known for their meat and each month they have a coupon in the throw out paper that offers a free something or other with a $25.00 purchase. This month it will be a pound of ground beef and pork half and half for free! I recently found a recipe that used this mix to make a meat loaf. I am almost out of coffee and have enough to just squeak through the month. Several stores have coffee on sale and was going to buy some at one store but realized the deal at another store was better.. I rarely go to this store so did not pay much attention but did wise up enough to realize what they were offering. Buy 25.00 worth of certain products and get 10.00 off. They have the same coffee on sale and I can use some of the other items as well. After the $10.00 is taken off the coffee will come to $1.99 for each canister. Also Pupperoni is included in this sale and I will use money that Teddi's Nana sent a while back and so it will be free. Combined with what I bought with gift cards recently on Amazon he will have 6 months of treats free. I had planned on using the money for his grooming but I have cut back on his grooming since we will be going in to the winter months soon.. I will bathe him at home in between. I still have $3.00 from Pine Cone research that I will use towards something for Oct food stock up.. Also have not crunched the numbers yet but I did save a few dollars here and there from October bills and that will go in to my slush fund account for groceries.So going in to Oct things are looking good. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Although we are still in Sept I went ahead and used money from my budget to buy groceries which will go under the Oct food budget.. It all comes out of the same pot so whether I spend it today, next week, or next month it is still the same amount of money from the same pot of money. I went to the meat store yesterday and bought $31.00 worth of meat and some potato salad. It is a little hole in the wall but it has real butchers there to serve you.. It was like I was back in the olden days where you could request what you wanted and how much you wanted. It was not all prepackaged and sitting there ahead of time.. I bought 5 lbs of 80% ground beef.. He asked how I wanted it packaged.. I had it packaged in one pound packages.. So when I came home I was able to put three pounds in the freezer since they were all nicely wrapped and labeled. Usually I have to come home and weight and divide and re-wrap the meat.I bought a pound of their special sausage. The checkout clerk told me that it was the same recipe for the last 62 years. If it is as good as it sounds I will buy it more often. It is freshly made and is a lot cheaper than the national brands or other local stores in house made sausage. Nice bacon freshly sliced and I only wanted half pound .. not a problem.. Also 4 natural casing hot dogs. I also received a pound of combination ground pork and ground beef for free since I spent over 25.00. Also at the check out they had bananas that were getting a long in the tooth.. take as many as you want for free.. I brought home about 2lbs. They are in the freezer going to make banana something or other in the new future. At first my aide was not sure if she was going to buy anything but when she left she said, " we should make this a regular place to go to." I agree. Every month they have a new coupon in the paper offering something free with a 25.00 purchase.

I also bought a pound of their potato salad. It was $1.00 cheaper than our local chain store.. I sometimes buy premade potato salad then add things in to it at home.. I added one of my cheap potatoes bought recently .10 cents, added two eggs .08 cent each, some chopped onion and a little bit more mustard, some celery seed, as well as pickle juice from the fridge and had spent maybe .30 cents extra for add ins from home and still did not pay as much as a pound of potato salad from our local chain stores.

We then went to a different store and made some of the purchases I mentioned the other day. There was a sub made but it was ok. The interesting thing is the particular sale I was going to use was buy $25.00 worth of certain products and get $10.00 off. I did do that to get the coffee for 1.99 each. I bought two. The interesting thing is one of the items to be purchased was Jif peanut butter 2 for $7.00. I had them in my basket and my aide told me she had seem them 2 for $5.00 in another area.. What the heck? I checked them out and they were identical down to the lot number.. So I bought jam instead of peanut butter and put the peanut butter to the back of my order when they went through the checkout and they were only 2 for 5.00. So they had tagged 2.00 extra dollars on to their sale.. If my aide had not seen the other jars I would have been really ticked off to realize how much they were over charging..I did run in to another bargain. Need distilled water for my c-pap machine.. They had their's marked down to .66 cents a gallon. The cheapest I have found was Ruler .78 and usually it is around 1.00 to 1.19 elsewhere. So when I go to the NPs off in Oct I will stop by that store again and stock up enough for the winter months. It is in another town but on the way to my NP's office..Although I have spent a lot of my Oct funds made some great buys I feel good about what I have purchase so far. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by Dgflorida »

I really enjoy reading your posts. So inspirational.
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