Debt Diet Divas

Our Lil' Family wrote: How's that for a cutsey name?

Ok, so here's where we own up to our daily spending!

mamasbigbaby replied: That's a cute name!

PrairieMom replied: Works for me!

boyohboyohboy replied: Count me in!

Maddie&EthansMom replied: I'll play, too.

My3LilMonkeys replied: I'll play!

Today:
$10.00 copay at Dr's (yearly gyno checkup)
$10.00 copay for BCP
$22.00 liquor store for our vacation- from vacation fund

And I'll probably be paying bills later.

Jackie012007 replied: today we spent $11 on grocery stuff that we forgot on grocery day... man ever since I got pregnant I have been a total ditz breain when it comes to groceries!!!

also spent $40 on a nursery bedding set for the baby . It was on sale and it was exactly what I wanted!!! I used money I have been saving for baby stuff since I found out... here is a picture from the walmart website:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4809926

man I was looking at a set that was like $80 for 4 pieces, but this was $40 for 3, the full bumper, crib sheet and blanket... seemed like a really good deal and it's sooo cute

ok ok I'll stop rambling now

PrairieMom replied: Cute! bedding! I love pooh!
We are counting bills too? okay. I payed bills this morning.
I am left with 300 until next payday on thursday.

My3LilMonkeys replied:
I don't know - I didn't know what exactly to count. I guess someone needs to make some rules - I vote for either you or Naomi since it was your ideas.

PrairieMom replied: thats kinda a grey area for me since our bills are scaled down to the point where we are really not willng to cut back on them, so they just are what they are KWIM? How about loans, CC, and Late factor spending? I would like to include groceries since I think I can save $ there too. Should we include bills? just cause I'm not having trouble with those doesn't mean someone else isn't. I'm passin the buck on rule making!

Hillbilly Housewife replied: I didn't spend any money on anything silly today. I spent about 200$ on miscellaneous bills that needed to be paid, and I have about 700$ left in my chequing account. I have about 100$ in my savings.

coasterqueen replied: Ok, I don't do the bills so I can't play to that extent. I try to ignore how much money goes to bills anyways. Tonight I bought another baby gift for $21.56. Yes, I'm being cheap right now! I have been invited to 6 baby showers and 2 birthday parties over the next 2 weeks. So I have $4.44 to last me til Friday.

Maddie&EthansMom replied: I don't do the bills, either. I think that would be hard b/c like PrairieMom said, our bills are pretty much scaled down and something we 'have' to pay, kwim?

My rules will be as follows: No eating out, no buying unnecessary things, scaling down on grocery store spending (buying junk food).

Today I spent: $0.00 (and I have no idea how much is in the checking acct)

kit_kats_mom replied: I'll play too but I'll do what I usually do, I run a quicken query once a week to see how we are on our budget. If we are nearing the limit, I know we need to cut back in that area. I won't bore you with the stuff we are doing ok on but we only have $45 left for the month in houshold spending which is stuff like cleaning supplies, paper towels, diapers, anything that's not food or home improvement. Oy! That's gonna be tough!

I did fire the nanny today so that's $300 a month I've added back into our lives. She was a dolt. She insisted on calling me Terri even though I corrected her 6 times. Grrrr.

PrairieMom replied:
I don't think $21 is cheap. it sounds really reasonable to me. I spend more like $10 on an aquantince and no more than $25 on a friend.

Our Lil' Family replied: I think each person can account for whatever they need to be accountable for. KWIM? I'm the same with bills, we can't really do much about them, besides sweat by keeping the A/C high, so I'll just do "other", including groceries.

Our Lil' Family replied:
WTG Aimee!!

Our Lil' Family replied:
I'm with Tara, $20 is pretty decent in my opinion!

PrairieMom replied: Okay, my rules will be
1. No fast food
2. no late factor spending.
3. Smart shop at the grocery store

My goals are to decrease my dining out budget by 100% saving me up to $250 a month.
decrease my grocery bill from about 535 a month to 400 a month
decrease my Gas bill from 220 a month. (by staying home and not going out shopping)
Decrease my extra spending by about 50% from 700 to about 350.

I am hoping to have about $700 in extra money at the end of 4 weeks.

C&K*s Mommie replied: It may be something to look into, but if you are interested Bank of America has that program, where if you use a check card from them, they will round up the amount to the nearest dollar. Depositing the change into a savings account. And for the first three months they will match your savings @ 100%. After those first three months it is a 5% match per year (but there is a cap to the total amount in a yr) Sounds like an easy way to save money.

Here is the link to read about it.
BOA Keep the Change

Wishing everyone very well!

luvmykids replied: Oooh, I must have missed the original thread about this but I need to make some serious changes in my lifestyle What exactly is the deal and no judging, right?

luvmykids replied: Nevermind, found the other thread

Today I spent:

$20.00 on gas, which won't last long because I had to drive to pick up Kylie and my neice from FIL's house.

$28.00 for Moms Day Out for Colt and Macie (can't fit 4 kids in my car)

$7.83 on snacks/drinks for the girls

$2.63 on McDonalds breakfast for me

$7.22 on cigarettes

$40.00 online poker, that has to last TWO weeks since I said in the other thread only $20.00 a week.

Paid some bills totalling $963. (I know some people aren't including bills but part of my problem is learning again how to budget and prioritize)

Mommy2Isabella replied: I don't pay the bills, Sal does so, I won't factor that in ...

My Rules:

Cut back 100% on Fast food spending
Cut out AT LEAST 100 dollars on food spending
Not buying things for Isabella that she doesn't REALLY NEED, that being my Misc. category.

* Today I spent *
$1 on a Sundae from Mc Donalds
NO money at the Grocery since we did that on Sunday
Didn't buy anything for Isabella today

PrairieMom replied:
No judging? Personally, I hope that if I stray someone out there will shame me back onto the right path! I need someone to be accountable to.
I won't judge tho! just good old fashioned support!

Jamison'smama replied: Okay, I'm joining in too. I will start accounting for my money today.

3_call_me_mama replied: OK, I'll join too. I gotta go read teh other thread, and then I'm starting today.
(Good thing I didn't start yesterday... I did Kathleen's fall shopping yesterday afternoon.... definately not a way to starta debt diet! LOL) BUT I"m all done for her for fall adn most of winter!!!! YEAH (she just needs to fit into her snow suit form last year nad I'm all set! LOL~ Which I doubt she will!)

jcc64 replied: I'm in. I was absolutely horrendous yesterday. Laid out $20 to visit a private pool with my 3 kids as invited guests, when we have a pool right in our backyard! My gfs were having a get together, and I felt guilty not showing up. total waste of $$$, although the gf time was nourishing.

Spent $97 on groceries this am- a very modest amount for us. I can easily go over $200 on a single grocery shopping trip. The high price of organic eating.

I don't think we need a set structure here, ladies. Just saying "it" outloud, whatever "it" happens to mean to you, is a good way to awaken our consciousness about unnecessary spending. I absolutely lose track of silly spending- like my dunkin Donuts coffee trips in NYC, my magazines for the train ride, etc...Gotta get a grip. This is a good way to start.

If we're being completely honest, I'd say my cc debt is probably in the neighborhood of $35K. Very overwhelming- but somewhat unavoidable in many cases. We charge car repairs, essential stuff from Home Depot for emergencies- like hot water heaters, etc.. as well as gas and groceries when the $$$ runs out. The cost of living here in NY is pretty brutal- and I haven't had a raise in over 5 yrs. I''m sure there's lots of room for improvement, and this is a good kick in the pants, but I think we actually just need to make more $$$ somehow or we'll never knock that debt down. We're already sending out the equivalent of a mortgage payment every month to cc debt. But as long as we keep using them, they're never going to go down.

luvmykids replied: We didn't go to our usual Tuesday morning movie because I spend on junk food and video games after and I knew they wouldn't even be into todays movie. That means I saved about $20 so far today.

Our Lil' Family replied:
WTG Monica!!!

3_call_me_mama replied: WELL Here's my today so far

Dr/chiropractic visit for Cameron (she doesnt' accept insurance) $45
Homeopathic Cream and pills for teh HUGH vericose veins in my leg that is swelling and HOT $ 23
Ice cream cone for Cameron after his visit (DH gave him this $$ so not sure it should count but I'm counting ALL money spent) $2
CC payment (covers about 1/4 of what I spent yesterday on the card) $45
And I'malloting $4 for dinner as I have an audit to do and will not be home at dinner tiem adn this little baby wont' wait until 8 pm to eat! Other than that nothign will be spent today, as i leave for the audit in 45 minutes and am not taking any money or cards with me! LOL (Other than the AAA card! )
SO total spent today : $119
Money that could have been saved instead of spent/wasn't a necessity: $6 (ice cream and eating out)

coasterqueen replied: I ALMOST spent while out at lunch (brought my own lunch), but I didn't. I would have if I would have found the right thing though. I actually shouldn't be spending anything today since I came straight to work from home and will go straight home after work.

I'm telling you if I SAH I'd spend money left and right. For those who think it would be more expensive to work....I'm not so sure. I save more by being at work all day.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Spent 2.38$ for 2 loaves of bread this morning (we buy the cheap ones at 1.19$ each) and 3.69$ for some milk.

Dh is home today, and he wanted to take the car to the carwash after he cleaned the inside... but i told him to grab a bucket and take the kids outside to help him... he didn't seem too impressed with my suggestion... but he did it anyways. After like 20 minutes, all I could hear was laughing... i went to look outside, and the two older kids and dh were soaked!! So I saved abotu 4$.

I really wanted Tim's coffee this morning... but I sucked it up.

My2Beauties replied: Then I've done great today. I didn't go out for lunch, I went home on lunch and DH made me some ramen noodles So $0 on lunch, I did borrow $1.29 for a great big Dr Pepper at the lobby shop downstairs from my co-worker and I have to pay her back tomorrow with a Diet Coke, so I really did spend $1.29 on a coke. Bad me. I paid bills today and on Friday, both cell phone bills $140, car insurance $296 (yes it's $296 per month ), I need to pay my car payment too before the 25th with this check. Yesterday I spent $25 on gas (gave me less than a half a tank ) and I spent $14 at the grocery store on garbage bags, stew meat and veggie mix for vegetable soup last night. We have a little over $1000 left over in checking even after my car payment is made so we're ok for the next two weeks. The check that always gets us is the first of the month, almost all of our bills are due then! Oh yeah I am going to the casino boat with a girlfriend this Saturday night so I'll at least take $100 there with me and Thursday I'm getting my hair colored so that's about $80 (now that she moved to a more upscale salon ). Whew, leaves us with about $800 then.

PrairieMom replied: Well I am back from grocery shopping and I am SO EXCITED! Last week my Grocery bill from Walmart was $165. This week I went to a grocery store with a list that I stuck to, and it was $86.74! My goal was originally to keep it under $100!

I bought mostly store brand things, but one thing that I never realized I was doing is that I buy larger containers of things. Why buy a larger more expensive container of Mayo that will sit in the back of my fridge and go bad before I use it all? I think I saved a lot that way too!

okay, so my average weekly grocery bill is 180. I saved 93.26.
Usually after grocerys we stop at Mcdonalds, but Thats a no no now, so I saved 7.00 by eating at home. My grand total saved today is

$100.26 !

It seemed like the world was working against me too. We went to story time at Barnes and Noble where it smells like Starbucks the second you walk through the door, but I resisted my usual Late (to much dairy anyway)
Then when we were leaving, the wind was just right to blow the Krispy kreme doughnut smell our way, but I resisted that too!

luvmykids replied:

PrairieMom replied:
My little purple guys look like a marchng band! crack me up!

coasterqueen replied: Congrats Tara. You did awesome woman! BTW, this sounds like it will make you healthier too, this whole debt diet if you skip the McD's, Starbucks and KK.

PrairieMom replied:
See, I bet they had WAY more than $4.00 worth of fun too! Thats awesomet that they had that time together!

PrairieMom replied:
No doubt. I could stand to loose some of this weight too! We usually eat fast food at least 2 times a week. I bought extra bread and sandwich meat instead!

Kaitlin'smom replied: you all are funny. I might play but not yet. I am finishing up buying for our summer bash my buget is a bit off. However I did do good today I got the plates and bowls I wanted for $4 less than normal. The main thing I have to work on is the food spending, I always seem to go over what I want to spend and I worked on that this month and did MUCH better. I need to start making list again, cutting my coupons and sticking to my list. Than maybe I can buy more and spend less.

luvmykids replied: I just realized too that by cancelling our lawn service I'll be saving $150/month too. Don't ask how the lawn will be mowed, I only have a push mower and a pretty big yard I may end up paying the neighbor kid $15 to do it every few weeks but thats still savings!

Our Lil' Family replied: I'm loving this thread!! Y'all give me motivation to keep on budget.
I'm off to WalMart because Albertson's is too expensive to buy everything I needed yesterday. I WILL stick to my list, I WILL stick to my list....!!!

I actually wanted to put off going until tomorrow, just to say I spent $0.00 today, but DH wants me to go today.

Jackie012007 replied: I haven't spent a thing today... because I just woke up at 3!!!! DF works overnights so I am on his schedule now... won't spend anything today because it is too darn hot to leave my bedroom where the a/c is!

Boo&BugsMom replied:
These problems exist with us too. I hate cooking, never have liked it, so I find dining out to be easy, but too costly when we add it up. We're getting better though, but sometimes I get into a rut. I am also an impulse shopper. If I see something my daycare kids would love, I have to get it. Or something for the house. In the Spring I go a little plant and flower crazy too.

Boo&BugsMom replied: Haven't spent a single dime today. I guess it pays to run a daycare in the home and not being able to just leave when I want. And the hubby thinks I spend too much!

Oh, I do need to buy Tanner new underwear this weekend, plus a baby shower gift for a friend at church, snacks for Tanner's t-ball on Thursday, food for his b-day party for next week, and b-day treat bags. Well...looks like I have to leave the house sometime!!

PrairieMom replied:
YOu sound exactly like me!

Cece00 replied: Today, I spent $13 @ McDonalds for me & the kids- so that was my 1 time this week, I am going to try REALLY hard not to go again this week.

And I spent $14 on clothes for Natalie for the fall (it was a good sale, and I had planned on spending this)

and $10 on diapers.

So today I spent $37. I dont plan on spending ANY more today.

lesliesmom replied: Okay ladies you are really inspiring me here. What a great way to try and curb my spending. Makes me regret the $50 I just spent on Little Tikes.com. They are having a Christmas in July sale so I bought 5 toys for my kids to start my Christmas shopping. I guess I didn't do badly, I probably saved about $40 because of the sale, though.

I also spent $5 on cigarettes. I still need to quit, I'd be saving about $30 a week if I could.... maybe I can start cutting back.. but that's another thread....

Thanks, again, ladies... This is the kick in teh butt I think I need to get back on track.

PrairieMom replied:
Hop on the band wagon! the more the merrier!
As for the smoking, maybe you can get a ticker like Bee Kay's and watch the money you could be saving by quitting add up. Maybe that would help give you incentive? she's up to something like $150 already!

Our Lil' Family replied: Back to report the damage.....$47.08 and $20 of that was diapers! Not too bad. I bought only 3 things off the list but they were things that we will use/eat.

Oh....guess I'll go ahead and report DH's total for today since I had to take care of that little errand. I had to go and get $180 cash out of the ATM to get a money order to pay his ticket for running a stop sign!!!!!!!!

kristy-n-chad replied: I'm a newbie, but can I join in too? We are really strapped right now, so I need to save where I can. I SAH, so today I spent $0.

PrairieMom replied:
well, THATS counter productive!

boyohboyohboy replied: I spent nothing today, which is a good sign! I am a big on line shopper!
and the money I spend in returning clothes alone could save me a bundle!

Our Lil' Family replied:
Yeah, tell me about it. I'm so peeved with him....but it's not like I've never gotten a ticket before so I just need to let it go. It happens.

My3LilMonkeys replied: Today I spent $20.00 on gas.

luvmykids replied: Today we took a shoebox of loose change to the grocery store with us and put it in one of those machines, it was 108.74!!!!!! I wanted to know approximately what a "full shoe box" amounts to ..... I told the kids if they'd add theirs in they could get a treat and I got away with getting them stickers. We also bought dog food, eggs, and some fruit, altogether $28 something plus I have money in my pocket!

Our Lil' Family replied: Wow Monica, that's awesome!

Way to go everyone, y'all are all doing great! Let's keep it up.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: last night around 12:30 I got really hungry... so was dh. I went to get myself some dried apricots and crackers with cheese... but dh went to McDicks. He did bring me back a coffee from Tim's though, which I'd been craving... so that's about 7$ spent "today". I also believe it's HotDog day at work... and dh usually spends about 4$. So that's 11$ so far today.

Like Monica, I rolled up my change... we have this little machine that sorts it all into separate "tubes"... and there was 94$ in there. I'm SOOO not telling dh.

PrairieMom replied:
Wow! I gotta ask, how much did that thing weigh?!

I have a few jars with change in them, I should do that too. One is a Jar I keep emptying The Boys piggy banks into, I should go get him a savings account.

luvmykids replied:
It was hefty, for sure! And it wasn't even a full size shoe box, it was from some sandals so it's really narrow. Makes me wanna hurry and fill a big one up!

luvmykids replied: OK, Shelly's post about decluttering just made me realize that when I get the storage unit cleaned out, that will save another $170 a month. I have another one in the town we used to live in @ $85 a month so hopefully someday I can get that stuff moved down here too.

coasterqueen replied: I didn't spend any money at all yesterday. Being at work is good for something. We ran out of milk last night so I had to go get some this morning. I spent $6.46 on two 1/2 gallons of organic milk.

I need to go get Kylie some new ballet slippers and tap shoes if I can find some, other than that, that should be my only expenses today.

3_call_me_mama replied: OK so here's my stuff so far...
Today: $40 on gas (will last until next monday as we are going away this weekend and it cost us that in gas to get to the inlaws adn back. ) $10 on a bridalk shower gift (no I'm not that cheap, it was paired with a $30 gift card to filenes that i had so we got a $60 gift on sale for $40 and paid $10!)
New shoes/sandles for the kids $24 (got Cameron a pair of sandals/slide things at oshkosh, kathleen water shoes and kathleen sneaker type things for teh fall also at osk kosh~ resisted a MAJOR sale there .. all fall stuff 40-60% off andf summer at 70% off... saved about $300 by not buying anyhting but teh shoes i went in for! LOL)
OH I had a thought too... maybe we should have a daily thread for this otherwise this thread is gonna get HUGH!

PrairieMom replied: I'll start the daily thread