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Eliminate items you shouldn't have bought

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.

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

 

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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

 


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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: $32.41 (-$35.73)

Day 24: Wegman's prices? Whoa!


I woke up super early because I needed to get something from Home Depot before people started flooding the stores. I was able to get what I needed plus something for a stocking all on the store credit that I picked up at the beginning of the month. After that I drove up to Wegman's but saw the Pennsylvania Dutch Market along the way. It's only opened a few days a week so I'd never gotten to go before. It had lots of good things in there but I managed to limit myself to a couple more stocking stuffers. Wegman's proved to be a big expense as is no surprise for anyone that frequents the store. It's a very nicely put together grocery store with a spending lure much like Target. You think you're getting such great deals and wondrous items. And before you know it you've knocked out over $50 in the lovely stuff. After checking out I talked myself into returning 3 of the more expensive items which included a mini calendar, Hanukkah Jelly Bellies, and some other item that was apparently so important that I don't remember it just a couple days later. All of them weren't marked with a price but I thought they wouldn't be so bad. All together it was over $16 that really didn't make any sense to spend. I had to fight the whole 'but it's for Christmas' debate in my head while I returned it. Made me think of this Pomplamoose song as I waited for the nice lady to give me my money back



A little later on in the day I went out with my Mom and we had lunch and joined her in some final grocery shopping. Interspersed with shopping events and meals and such I made three more presents while hiding in my room. It went quite well and I showed them off to people that weren't receiving those gifts. That evening was a nice crab cake dinner followed by cookies and pie. Before the night was through Mom and I picked up Susan from the train station. No problems there so we came home and I wrapped up filled up my assigned stocking and made another present before I headed to bed.

Inventory

Acquired: presents, groceries
Consumed: yogurt, panera, crabcakes, cookies

Daily cash values:

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