No Spend Month Wrap-up

Coffee is a great way to end the month! I’m right there with you for next month on being more prepared. Both boys start preschool in a few weeks and I’d love not to have to be rushing those 3 mornings a week.

You have such a beautiful family! Your daughter is so precious.

Way to go, Rachel! That’s awesome; good for you. I hope that coffee was delectable.

Congratulations, Rachel!

Way to go! Thanks for all of your inspiring ideas!

Wow, I am truly impressed. I confess to having been skeptical about the idea at first, but your writing and your integrity kept me hooked. I have truly learned a great deal and desire to continue to study this and plan for our own no spend month. Would you share again the link on the principles and practical plan part for a no spend month?

Thanks again and awesome Woo Hoo!

Good for you! None of you look any the worse for it either.
I’ve really enjoyed reading about your journey. It’s gotten me fired up to see if we can tighten our belts even a little more (and I’m sure that we can), which is always music to my husband’s ears!

Great Job! Reading about your experience has prompted me to start my own challenge today! Since I’m a single, I’ve set my limit at $100.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Where do you live that you can spend $30 and get gas AND groceries? Small town? Big city? Middle of somewhere? No specifics needed, just curious. I live in the lower left hand corner of the US and just spent $68 on gas and $33 on groceries. That should get me through the weekend. Seriously. Just the weekend.

Rachel - great job. Mary at http://www.owlhaven.wordpress.com is planning to do a similar experiment during September. You’ve been an inspiration this past month. Thanks!

Congrats on making it through July! Your ideas are great.

could your daughters eyes be any bigger? oh my goodness, she is cute.

Rachel,

I found your blog “surfing” through other “frugal” blogs (I think I started at Iowahippiechick :)) I absolutely LOVE your blog…I love the simplicity of it, and your ideas. I’m still trying to have a NO SPEND day, then weekend, then hopefully a whole month….I look foward to following your family and your progress!

Congrats on a great month!

Sharon

Can’t wait for August- I’m obsessed with preparation, list making, planning, etc.!

That great that you made it through July. I did a no spend challenge in April and it was a lot easier than I thought. After seeing how doing that cut our credit card bill in half was motivation to keep going.

I just found your blog via Get Rich Slowly and really like it! I look forward to more visits!

Rachel.. way to go! that’s really awesome. Thanks for all the encourage you gave me on my no fast food month too.

I knew your family could do it! Nicely done. Just look at all the encouragment you have shown to everyone. Love it!
I could hear the clink of your coffee cups all the way up here in Kirkland,Washington!

Chris

This is great Rachel, thanks for sharing your experience. I didn’t discover your blog until this week so I’m going to do my challenge in August. It will be hard with all the fantastic back to school sales going on!
I have an important goal in October and this will help me get there.

http://naturalmomstalkradio.com/blog/my-challenge-spend-nothing-august/

Congrats! That was very inspirational for me. I’m going to try a modified version myself in August.

I am doing a modified version of this. Congrats on completing your 30 days!

wow…that’s amazing. coffee’s normally $4 each in my area

Hi,

Read this blog few days back. But just couldn’t get time to write to you.
Weekends spare me some time, so thought of writing to you.

First of all, your daughter is an Angel, with her lovely eyes.
I do something similar in my house hold here. Like you strecthing your self to king of extremes once in a year, we have limited our budget to some 500 dollars for a month. Now we manage everything in that and be more cautious to not exceed our budget.

Its been a success first month, and I am quite on target for next month too.

Let’s see how far can I take it.
Pooja

So glad my husband and I came across your blog. We also started a month of no eating out since August. Now , we are in September. Just thought I would stop by and say hello.

The Jersey Homesteader

I enjoyed reading your “No Spend Month” Blogs. I had my budget reduced recently and have been trying to live with in my means. When I get an email for buying something I immediately delite it. I only go shopping when I really need something. I’ve been paying with cash instead of my debt card too. I was over spending with the debt card. I hate just using cash, but it’s amazing how much easier it is to hold off on not buying stuff.

My daughter’s birthday is coming up. At first I was thinking that I cant do a party. I love creating fun parties for her and her friends. Well this year Im letting her have some friends, from school, come over after school. I’m going to use all the left over plates, etc from the last 10 birthdays (she’ll be 11 this year). Create some games and only have simple decorations. In the past, I would use her birthday to buy all sorts of junk. This year I won’t do that.

I’ve started to sell on EBAY and I’ve been working on that. Slowly but surely.

Now I’m working on trying to get my credit card bills down.

Your article is great! There are some great suggestions and methods that anyone can use to save money each month.

In the past six months, our family of three has been living on this same type of budget; however, ours was not planned or optional. Our “trial by fire” was necessitated by my spouse’s job loss as well as a 40% decline in sales from my online business. In the past year, our total monthly budget has gone from >$7,000 a month to <$1,000 a month, now. We are living on savings right now and are eliminating every excessive and unnecessary purchase — fast food, manicures, Starbucks, etc. Hopefully, the economy will improve and such measures will again be voluntary; but, at the moment, it’s life.

Thanks for your article and the many ideas it offers!

Welcome to the world of people living on small fixed incomes such as social security.

After paying the bills that must be paid, electricity, gas, water, property taxes, etc. and buying some food we would love to have $100 left for anything we want.

Thanks for a great article though.

I can relate to Don’s blog. I am 66 on social security and work part time. I had poor saving habits and always spent most of what I earned so, when I reached retirement age, I found I didn’t have enough to supplement my soc. security. However, I have been agressive in saving since I have continued to work part time and I am hoping to be in better shape financially in about 3 years. I have spent the first year of social security checks on home improvements and replacing old worn out appliances. I am now going to live very frugally and bank the social security checks for retirement. I think I can live on my wages if I eleminate all unneeded spending. I also have another partime job on the weekends and I will cut it back to every other weekend due to health problems. I would like to be relaxing under a palm tree some place but because of my previous spending habits, this is not possible. I have learned the value of saving, even tho it has come late in life. I am optimistic, but somewhat concerned about my future, however, I have been headed in the right direction for awhile now and that is all I can do.

Planning is a biggie for me when it comes to saving - I find it’s a relief on the front end too, since I have a better idea where my money is going to go….