Contents [ on > off]
Get in better shape from walking instead of driving

Extreme NoSpend

Remember how I did NoSpend November last year? Well this year I decided to try it in December. There are a couple of reasons for this shift. First of all I had a vacation planned already for November so I didn't want to skimp on it since vacations for me are so rare. The other reason is that while last November was difficult (primarily because of football season) it wasn't as big a stretch to pull off. Christmas is a big spending time and I found that instead of really saving on holiday spending, it could have been differed. So is it really no spend? Tough call. So in that spirit I modified one rule from 09. No Christmas stockpiling.

 

No Change November sprung as a result of things being moved to December. I can now compare it to December as well as last November. I also get a chance to see if I am able to track spending when it is happening all the time. Lets see how it all goes! Also of note, I am changing how I list acquired and consumed. If I acquired a cookie and ate it all in the same day, it will only be listed in consumed. Acquired will only be present for things that make it to the end of the day. The exception to this is cashflow.

[click here to turn the rules off]

 

 

Welcome once again to visitors from Budgets Are Sexy! And thanks to J Monee to posting my story

 

0 days remaining

1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31

 


 

Unless otherwise indicated you can't spend any expected income.
- Salary
- Wages
- Rent owed
- Established court settlements
- Alimony

 

If you have any bills, you can pay them.
- Credit card purchases from previous months
- Medical prescriptions
- Mortgage/rent
- Utilities
- Cell phone

 

NO spending of already existing money in your possession
- Cash on hand
- Gift cards

The only exception to this is spare change

 

NO stockpiling
- You can't buy gas on the day before it starts unless you need it.
- No loading up on extra food. If you're low on milk that's ok, but you can't buy a dozen frozen dinners

 

If you have any thing owed to you, you can call it in
- Owed lunches/dinners
- Money
- Take someone to court
- Stuff that was borrowed

 

You can sell get money by getting rid of things in your home
- Selling on Craigslist/eBay
- Returning things to Home Depot/Lowes (easy to find for any home owner)
- Unused gift cards

 

You can spend money that is refunded to you in that month
- Credit card cash back checks/ gift cards
- Medical reimbursement

 

Anything that you sell or get refunded must be spent after you get the money back.

So if you submit a reimbursement for medical expenses, or sell something online, you can't spend money in anticipation of getting it. If you submit it and you don't get anything sent to you that month... tough noogies. If you find out someone owes you money, you have to wait until they hand it to you.

 

Gambling is allowed with any eligible money (but I don't recommend that)

 

You can consume anything that you already have
- Food
- Toiletries
- Fuel (if you are a big commuter, consider this to be a utility)

 

You can barter
- Make dinner for someone with your own food, get someone to take you out for dinner
- Help someone out with a chore, get food or something else (not money) in return
- Sell anything you receive by doing chores for others
- Sell anything that was borrowed and then returned to you
- Sell anything for profit that you buy that month with eligible money

 

In the end you can potentially.
- Reduce excess crap in your pantry
- Eliminate items you shouldn't have bought
- Get evened out on things that people owe you
- Get in better shape from walking instead of driving
- Hang out with friends more
- Lose weight by eating more frugally (saving and eating leftovers)
- Eat healthier by cooking your own food
- Best of all, next month you'll have a lower credit card bill

 


[ click here to turn the rules off ]

 

Send any questions to sox@vt.edu | Take a look at a previous or the next day

Check out the other spending pages too!

Cash: $46.36 (+$10)

Day 12: Where Do You Want to Go?


Big score today. I was being lazy (laptop in bed) and decided I better make sure that I can still get a free flight for my trip to Seattle at the end of January. I called Nick to make sure that we're still on and he gave me the thumbs up. I went to the frequent flier site for United and there was still a flight available for 25K miles, I had over 40K so it was fine. While I was signing up for it there was an advertisement for a United credit card. If you sign up you get 30K miles and a $25 after your first charge. They had a super fast application and I got approved right off the bat. They gave me my number and back I went to book my travel. Now you might think that I just got caught in their trap but look at it this way, I was able to book a flight to Seattle, charge the $10 booking fee to the card and the net of the exchange is I get 5K miles and $15 bucks. Best part is that I just canceled my United credit card about 2 months ago because as long as you cancel it before one year is up you don't get charged the $60 annual fee. You could say that making a $10 charge violates my rules, but since I get a $25 credit, I'm going to allow it. For the record I have done this at least 5 times between United and US Air credit cards, the miles vary but I've paid for at no less than 6 flights this way.

I talked myself into the kitchen to find something to eat. I was craving pizza because there was a Papa Johns ad on the weather website. Happily I found lots of good things to make a pizza. Ground linguica (thawed out from its hiding place in the freezer), a red jalapeno, leftover asiago cheese, some pizza sauce hidden in the fridge door and dough made in the food processor. At some point while making it I went to wipe my hands off on my jeans and when I hit my back pocket I heard a crinkle. !!!I found the $10 I misplaced!!! I didn't do a whole lot of note for the rest of the day. But I did have some good soup and cheesecake to celebrate Kim's birthday. She made some great bread too. I am giving the bread machine a shot before I go to bed. So far it looks like it came out ok.

Inventory

Acquired: $10 found, $25 credit, 30K United miles, flight to Seattle, leftover pizza, pumpkin wheat bread
Consumed: $10 charge, 25K United miles, pizza

Daily cash values:

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031