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Eat healthier by cooking your own food

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

Day 25: Ho Ho Ho


As the youngest in the family I should have been the first one up. Not happening after hammering away at Christmas toys until 2am like some sort of procrastinating Santa. Everything came out well though. Let's see if I can sumarize the day's events well. (I am a little late on the update) Steve and Daniel called in on Skype which was pretty fun. We all munched on Blueberry scones and started in on our stockings. I got lots and lots of great presents and decided that I need to have a shorter wish list from now on. I don't think there was anything on there that I didnt' receive and it's far more than I need. Liza was a good sport and visited a lot. She had plenty of treats, boxes, bows and paper to hop around. Everyone seemed pretty happy about what they received

A while back I mentioned that I had received an interview and here's the scoop on that. Since Don'y Spend December was picked up once more on Budgets are Sexy, I had some external viewers on Soxite. I didn't have any comments on his site at all BUT I did have a blogger from Time magazine contact me asking if I would be interested in an interview. I put together my responses to his questions and hopefully it will get posted soon! In one of my next posts I'll put in a video about some of the presents I've come up with. Didn't take a lot of money, but definitely took some time. Oh, and if you'll recall I had set up a rule for Christmas money, If I didn't give a present to the person in return, I can't consider it received until I send out a thankyou card. I'll have to do that soon too. Some of you might wonder what naan pizza is. My mom and I kinda came up with it. Can of diced tomatoes with garlic + tomato paste = sauce, naan bread = crust, Sprayed some olive oil on the back, put cheese and pepperoni on top and baked at 375 for 10 minutes. Was a really tasty evening snack so we could append a primarily cookie diet.

Inventory

Acquired: presents
Consumed: presents, blueberry scones, lobster newburg, pie, cookies, naan pizzas

Daily cash values:

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