NoSpendtober Day 27&28

I woke up this morning and realized I had totally forgotten to write this post last night.  Oops.   I ended up getting too busy to write and finish it for the day, so I figured I would combine posts.

Yesterday's mission was to find something to do together as a family that is free.   I didn't do that yesterday.  But this morning my son and I went on a walk/run/bike ride together.   It was a lot of fun, and I realized that it is something I could do more frequently with all the kids.

NoSpendtober day 26

Today is plan a free date night day.   Hubby and I did this without really planning it ahead.  It is nice when it works out even though you didn't make it a plan.   I made my easy turkey dinner.    (I found a turkey breast in my freezer that I thinly sliced for sandwiches)   It was yummy.   We watched a movie and talked for a while as the kids watched some of their shows.   We all went to bed early...which was really nice.  I didn't get all the dishes done, but oh well.

NoSpendtober Day 25

As it is Sunday, it's a low key day for this challenge.   The challenge for today is to try bartering.   Trade one object for something you need.   At this point I don't have anything I am missing desperately or need.  So I may just be in the category of someone who has way too much stuff already.   I may possibly need to continue this challenge into the next month just to use up what we have.  I have been feeling as though I have a lot of clutter.  This may just be why--I do!  

NoSpendtober Day 24

Today I went shopping.   To be honest, it actually felt really weird to walk into a grocery store.  I felt like I shouldn't be there.   We decided to have family over for dinner tomorrow and needed to get some supplies.   Considering how my credit card looks I didn't mind going.   At the same time I have realized that I have a really hard time telling my hubby no, in fact I really don't.   Interesting. 

NoSpendtober day 23

Day 23.   This month has flown by.   It's hard to believe there are just a few more days left of the challenge.   In a way this last week is going to be the hardest.

I found myself wishing I could order online today.   I found this great recipe for Frozen hot chocolate on pinterest.   I so wanted to make it!   I almost ordered the ingredients off of amazon.  There have been a couple other things I wanted too...evil internet!  All these people asking for money!  :)

Hubby wanted wings for dinner.  I didn't fight him.  It seems that eat out fridays could become a tradition at our house.   I wasn't in the mood to cook dinner anyway.   And I am feeling really good about our budget right now. 

NoSpendtober Day 22

Today's challenge was to find stuff to sell.   I didn't do that.   But I did use my time to bake.   My daughter wanted for her lunch tomorrow.  She would have liked to go to the store.   Instead, I asked her what I should bake.  She asked for cookies and cupcakes.  I made those as well as a loaf of bread.   Yum!    She was quite excited by that, hopefully it turns out good.

I cut up a turkey breast that was in the freezer to use for lunch meat, so I feel like I really utilized what we had instead of running to the store for what ever came up.    I am keeping track of what we run out of.  Not only will this tell me what we use, but it will also help me restock when I can restock again.  I'm out of vanilla.  That kinda stinks.  Oh well.

I have been using half freeze dried eggs in all the recipes I have made.  It seems to work better that way.   I am glad that I am extending the use of my real eggs though.  So far I am half way through the 24 pack I bought at the beginning of the month.   Feeling great about this challenge!  I may not be doing all the side options, but I am getting the biggest portion.  :)

I finally filled out the weekly reflection as well.  

NoSpendtober Day 21

Today was the 3rd week checkin.  Honestly I totally forgot to fill it out.   I have had trouble following through with the assignments lately.  I will fill it out tomorrow...

No spending today.   I made yogurt with powdered milk and a freeze dried yogurt starter that I found when I cleaned out my baking drawer.  Other than the fact that I burnt it a bit, it seems to have turned out.  I guess we will see!  

My daughter had a mini party tonight for halloween.    Some of the kids couldn't come.  We had pizza and cupcakes for treats. (pizza from my freezer) It turned out pretty good considering I didnt buy anything for it.  

NoSpendtober day 20

Today's mission was spa day.   I really could have used it today!   I didn't do anything spa like, and have yet to take a shower.   I have some bath petals that were given to me a while ago.  Maybe I'll go jump into the tub and relax before bed.   It's been just one of those days where I had no motivation for anything.   I did not spend any money though.   I have been keeping tabs on my credit card account as well and it is significantly less...66%...than last month's bill.  Even with my refundable expenses and the trip expenses.   I am more than impressed with myself.   I used to think I couldn't budget.   Maybe I just had the wrong mentality?   It's not about how you are spending the money, but if it is on the necessities?  What do you really need??   I know I can be frivolous in my spending.   So this is a good eye opener. 

NoSpendtober Day 19

Today's mission was to prep for a spa day.   As I have been away from home...I had lots of cleaning to catch up with and didn't get around to making any spa items.  I do have many scented soaps and scrubs that I have been storing and not using that I can use though.

I went to pick up a prescription for my hubby this afternoon.  It was wierd to walk through a store and not need to buy anything.   I had $10 cash that I paid for the prescription with and that was all I bought.   Felt a little odd to not even be tempted to purchase anything.   I really like this thought of no spending..really makes you think!

NoSpendtober Day 18

After the weekend of opposites...spending a lot, as you tend to do on vacation.   I am glad to be home and ready to get back to being creative.  

Hubby was willing to get us all sorts of treats, but I told him I already had what we needed.   We are back to eating from food storage and making treats.   My daughter wants to have a Halloween party on Wednesday so I am going to need to get really creative with that.  

Today's mission is to find uses for things you have, as other things.   I used part of a cardboard box and wrote on it instead of printing stuff off the computer today.  I don't have any cardstock anyway.   So the box pieces were much more stable to hand out to a bunch of young kids for reminders of parts of the songs.   

The email for today was talking bigger picture of repurposing, but really anything works and it definitely saved ink and paper.   So its good!  

NoSpendtober Day 16 &17

I am off on a plane, having fun shopping with my daughter.   So offline for a couple of days.  :)  I'll pick back up when I am home.

Yes this was a planned trip.  :)

NoSpendTober Day 15

Today's tip was to refashion.  This is something I had only come across on pinterest just yesterday.  This cool blog where a gal takes items from the thrift shop and refashions them into something really cute.   She's the refashionista!

The money I spent was at an appointment today.  Nothing else.   I did pay bills, and realize how much we spent last month.  Uh, I will just say I had to transfer money from savings to pay off the credit cards. 

NoSpendtober Day 14

Today is the mark of week 2 of this challenge!  I have made it two weeks.  Hooray!!  I can't say it has been easy, but it also hasn't been as hard as I expected it to be.  

Here is my reflection of the last week.

So feeling computer illiterate!  So much for changing this orientation!

I wrote on the wrong side of my book...so it was week three's paper.  ooops!  

NoSpendtober Day 13

Today's mission was to clean the bathroom.   It was quite clean after my cleaning day on Friday.   Which is nice!  So I cleaned out and organized a drawer.   I was in slow motion today, so one drawer seemed to take the entire day.  (I did a lot of other stuff too...um, like watching madam Secretary while working) but I feel accomplished in that task.   I only had a half hour to clean this morning, and spent a bit of it cleaning around my bathroom sink.   It has had an abundance of caulking since we moved in which was a dirt magnet.   I was able to get a bunch of it up easily and it looks so clean now!  Amazing what a few minutes will do!

I had a record low spending amount at costco today:  $8.22.   We were low on milk so I grabbed some and a thing of cottage cheese.  (probably not necessary, but not something I want to try making on my own)  It was rather odd to walk through and not be that tempted to buy stuff!   I did also get an ink cartridge refilled.  My printer ran out on Sunday.  I was going to wait, but then we had a treat left on our doorstep with instructions to hand out treats with a copy of the paper to two other families in the neighborhood.   I want to do this with my kids, and so instead of buying the $70 cartridges, I refilled one for $11.  So I saved $60!   I figure that is still good!!

Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow's challenge is!

Nospendtober Day 12

Today was another busy day.   I feel like I got a lot done, but it wasn't necessarily everything that I had planned.  

I had to run to the store today and was really tempted to make a couple purchases after picking up my prescriptions.   I picked them up had lots of excuses in my head and then ended up putting them back.   They will probably go on sale another time.  I don't need it right now.   Sometimes it is really hard to talk yourself into things.

I didn't get around to the challenge of the day:   clean the closet.  I had gone through my clothes and got rid of quite a few a couple months ago after I read about the konmarie method.  So I didn't exactly feel like I needed to.

Tomorrow is another day.   I have a few challenges stacking up on me.   Cleaning the house this morning went really well though.  I like this new plan!   It was a breeze and it is looking so nice!  My kids even started cleaning the boys room on their own today.  Can't complain about that!

Nospendtober Day 11

Today's challenge is to work on your office space.   My office space looked like this today:  

I am in charge of the singing time for the primary children in my church.   So I spent most of the day preparing to teach the song I chose.  Tomorrow I am going to tackle the kid's room and the desk space.  

I made dinner for the family today.   An unusual feat for me on Sundays.  We ate around the dinner table, it was quite nice!   

I cleaned up the dishes and started the dishwasher, even hand washing the extra pans.  Somehow starting with a clean baseline makes it that much more important and enticing to get it back to that same spot.   Tomorrow morning I will resume my cleaning hour.   I've debated on whether to make it 6 10 minute blocks, or just a full hour.  Maybe I will try it multiple ways and figure out what works better.

NoSpendtober day 10

Today was an interesting day as I spent a bunch of money...but it will all be reimbursed.   My hubby was moving his offices and I got food and drinks for all those who helped as well as some other supplies.  

I did buy some steak for dinner, it was another costco trip.  It seems to be getting easier to say no to buying extra stuff.  I walked out of there spending less than $75.  Considering my average trip is around 200 I feel like that is a major win!

Today's challenge was to clean the kids rooms.   Didn't get to it as we were moving most of the day.  I will pick up on that on Monday.  

NoSpendtober Day 9

Today is cleaning day.   I psyched myself up all day yesterday saying today I would get up and clean.   Guess what,  I did!   I feel so accomplished!   I guess good things happen when you decide to do it!

The suggestion on the Living well spending less blog is to spend an hour each morning cleaning.   I actually really like this idea.  I have been trying forever to clean in 15 minute blocks but recently after watching a video on productivity by Brendon Bruchard started trying 50 minute blocks.   Having an hour first thing in the morning to run through the house and clean sounds like just what I need.   You could say that it is eating the frog for me.   I am most productive first thing in the morning so why not take advantage of it!

NoSpendtober Day 8

Today's mission is to prepare to clean like crazy tomorrow.   I started it...but then was gone for a while helping pack things for a move.   On the plus side, my kitchen is cleaner than it has been in weeks!

I've been doing tons of laundry as well...I'm sure I will have much more after tomorrow!

I did go to the store today but it was to buy boxes for the business...not my dime.   I did really well avoiding purchasing anything extra.   

We got our bountiful basket tonight.  I was really excited.  The pumpkins are great and we got some grapes and kale and all sorts of veggies that I thought I might be doing without.   I am glad I did it.  

I'm still doing well making food off of what we have...no take out this week!   Sausage and pancakes for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day...of to sleep!

NoSpendtober Day 7

I did well today.   Was home most of the day, so not too many temptations, I made dinner and even went through one of my freezers.  Found some goodies in there that I had forgotten about.  :)

Amazon did have a sale on costumes today that included a cape that my daughter wanted for her costume.  Half price!  I was glad I had waited and was able to get it on the sale instead of full price that I would have otherwise.   I officially saved myself $9

Hubby didn't like dinner, and asked me to pick him up a shake from Arctic Circle on my way home.   He had given me cash earlier in the week so I used that to buy us all a little ice cream.  It was a nice treat and "on the house"