Welcome To The No Spender Bender

[Deleted member 12480]

Inky, thats great! It must be nice to know you've got some of it paid off - not that i would know how life as an 'adult' is like lol

TheShirt, I agree - i'm not exactly loaded but i'm proud of myself for being able to set aside a little bit of money into the 'savings' pile.

well done everyone its seems like everyones getting along really well. I can't wait til the end of the month so we can see how we've all done!

 

[Smuterella]

Well, of my clothing needs list I only have one essential - some white wedges - as mine died at the weekend.

As such, I really need to stick to the NSB this month and not think "hey I got a bonus lets spend it all"

As such I intend to just buy the wedges and allow myself one purchase of something special - and something special means something that I really can't pass up. I expect anything from my very specific wishlist is unlikely to arrive in my orbit so I should be safe.

My aim is to have my overdraft paid off in 6 months. Then I can start on the credit card...

I want to be out of debt entirely in 18 months. I ran up a lot of credit when buying my flat and furnishing it.

 

[Deleted member 12480]

Sounds good to me, i know what i will definitely be turning to when i become a student, haha!

 

[kamikat]

.
We're hitting the home stretch in March - how are you preparing to get through April? We are 3/4 of the way to saving the $2,083 for the painful tax payment on 4/15 - and I still managed to buy a few things I wanted by selling some things I no longer wanted. More of that for me in April is my plan!

Glad you're almost through with the tax payment!
I totally fell off the wagon after the last payday. I hate to get all personal and psychological on y'all, but when I am good at controlling the needless eating, my needless spending gets out of control and vice versa. It definitely is "retail therapy". I didn't think I was doing bad until I looked at my account and saw that I had nearly spent everything and had very little to show for it. April 1 is a chance to start over, but I already know I need new earbuds for my iPod, new running shoes (tread is totally worn off in parts of the sole) and new underthings. When the wires start poking through, you can't just "make do".

 

[Inky]

Glad you're almost through with the tax payment!
I totally fell off the wagon after the last payday. I hate to get all personal and psychological on y'all, but when I am good at controlling the needless eating, my needless spending gets out of control and vice versa. It definitely is "retail therapy". I didn't think I was doing bad until I looked at my account and saw that I had nearly spent everything and had very little to show for it. April 1 is a chance to start over, but I already know I need new earbuds for my iPod, new running shoes (tread is totally worn off in parts of the sole) and new underthings. When the wires start poking through, you can't just "make do".

that's a very interesting point. I know I have self-medicated with food my entire life - and shopping. I never considered having replaced one with the other but I do think I have done that, especially while losing the 140 pounds in the last 3 years. Fascinating. thank you for that insight, it never clicked to me before.

it's a good lesson, well worth it's weight in .... oh, let's say pretty shoes

 

[Gracie Lee]

April 1st! Time for me to really knuckle down on my NSB rules. I started off alright a week or so ago, but then I spent too much on some new makeup (more red lipstick, and I wanted to try out the Coty Airspun powder). I had planned on buying myself some cute wedge heels, but now I have to wait on those. I've brought my lunch to work every day but one, and I've put several miles on my new running shoes that I picked up for a song last month.

I've decided that my two free passes for April will be: as many as 10 new Simplicity patterns, but I have to buy them all tomorrow when they're on sale for .75 each, and the cute wedge heels I didn't buy last month. In addition to sticking to my rules, I'm going to try to put some extra cash away each week. If I'm a good girl, I'll take that extra cash at the end of the month and buy myself a proper girdle. I'm also going to try to make some of the clothes I've been wanting, since I have tons of patterns, and tons of stash fabric.

 

[Inky]

Welcome to April Gracie Lee and all the NSB participants!!

I am going to stick to my sell-to-buy practice that I used in March, except this time it's Sell-to-Save. After Tax Day we can breath easier by about one belt notch, then we're saving up for a trip to Michigan. There's always something!!

Share your ideas for April!!

 

[kamikat]

March didn't go as planned so I plan to work even harder during April. My goal is to not even look at eBay for the whole month. The only money that I plan to spend out of this paycheck is some restocking of the liquor cabinet.

 

[Deleted member 12480]

there IS always something - but at least its a trip!

i got given some money today but i had to spend it - it was sort of 'find something for this amount and i'll get you it'. That was alright though cause i got some lovely makeup to kickstart the month!

 

[Cricket]

The only money that I plan to spend out of this paycheck is some restocking of the liquor cabinet.

Ditto, I have been really wanting to buy, buy, buy. But I have stuck to the essentials. However, I have taken a new interest in wine. So I too will be at least restocking.

I guess those shoes I really want will have to wait.

 

[kamikat]

I guess those shoes I really want will have to wait.

I got kinda lucky. I waited so long on the shoes I wanted to buy that I can no longer find them in my size.

 

[23SkidooWithYou]

Well, I haven't been around for a bit so I guess I'll give you guys an update...

I now know that I was really playing at NSB in March. I kinda new what I needed for regular expenses and knew what I needed to pay off the Sphynx kitten and the rest was up for grabs and I had some wiggle room.

Well, my other kitty is looking at surgery and biopsy of some tumors in her mouth. I kinda figured we were going this direction so about a week and a half ago, I went cold turkey. Nothing. Nada. Nill.

I'm sorry it took something serious to shake me up, but at least now I know I can delete all the saved searches and still live to see another day, lol. I might be in a cold hard NSB for a few months. I'm going to put the surgery on Care Credit and I'll have 6 mos to pay it off without any interest or finance charges. I am firm that it has to get paid off within that time frame, so this will keep me on NSB for quite a while.

The way I see it, Vintage by definition has been around for years.
It'll still be there when I have the dough to toss around in a couple months.

I do miss my Etsy time! LOL

 

[Deleted member 12480]

poor kitty i read it on your blog xxxx

 

[JoeNiblick]

Hello, everyone!

I just found this thread and enjoyed reading through all the posts! The NSB idea reminded me of my "Financial Crisis" mode from school. What I learned from that time was that "no spending" wasn't sustainable. A better idea, at least for me, was using the old cookie jar method of tucking away a set amount each week, and only allowing myself to use that money for discretionary spending. If there wasn't enough money in the cookie jar, I didn't make the purchase. The other thing this helped me do was reconsider my purchases... I had to decide if it was worth emptying the jar for a purchase.

Other "tricks" that I've found work well:

Spend only cash. Having money in hand gives you more perspective on spending, especially as you watch your wallet empty. This also helps you avoid the shock of an unexpectedly large credit card bill at the end of the month.

Use the automatic transfer option on your bank account. Each payday, I have money that is automatically siphoned off to a savings account. You can start small, if you want/need to, but what I've found is that I don't ever miss that money! And it's amazing to check in to see how much I've saved... Without even trying!

Keep your closets and cupboards neat and orderly. I find I spend the most when I can't see/get to my things. For clothes and other practical items, this helps me avoid duplicates. For non-essentials, this helps me put my collection in perspective. When I regularly stare at my shelf full of vintage oil lamps, I'm way less likely to make an impulse buy.

When one thing comes in, make yourself get rid of something else. Besides helping with keeping things neat and orderly, I've found I'm less likely to purchase something if it means having to choose something to get rid of.

Consider what your time is worth. After my last garage sale, I realized that for the money I made, I would have preferred to just donate the things to charity (and, by the way, get a write-off on taxes--just make sure you get a receipt for your donation) and have two+ extra free days. The other reason I now prefer donating items to charity instead, is that I can purge the items immediately instead of storing them away for a future sale.

My last suggestion is to talk through major spending with a spouse/partner/friend. Especially when it comes to home repairs (I own a 1931 farm cottage), I find things I originally thought were immediate needs can be delayed at least temporarily, or sometimes even indefinitely. I keep a list of:

1) Short-term inexpensive projects
2) Short-term major projects (prioritized)
3) Long-term major projects (also prioritized)

I hope this helps! What do other people do, besides NSB, to keep their spending under control?

 

[Tango Yankee]

Joe,

Those are some good suggestions! I blew it thoroughly last month, and even had some help doing it from the wife. April needs to be better (well... except I've got a sniper set on a hat tomorrow-it's not a really high bid, so if I win it I'll have gotten a deal and if I don't, I'm still good.) We've had to gather up about $4200 for the IRS; need to get that sent in this week.

So... on with the month!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Deleted member 12480]

Hi everyone - i hope your months are all going well.
I've been alright this month.
I have gotten all the necessities sorted and paid for (hair cut and general crap like that)

although i have been a bit bad - using up two free passes. However one can be justified. I have two houses to cart my belongings between (divorced parents) so i got a giant mary-poppins bag thats actually nice as well as big enough to fit all my stuff in.

The second can only be justified because it was prefectly fitting, suited me and was cheap and also 20% off. So not much justification there.

anyway, i'm off to rant about it on my blog. hope you're all doing well so far!

xxxx

 

[Gracie Lee]

I've overspent a bit this month, a result of eating out for a couple special occasions. I'm not so far gone that I can't pull it back, though, and Friday is a new paycheck and a clean slate. I'm still managing to put aside a little extra each week for a treat at the end of the month, so I'm proud of myself for that. I've used my passes, though, so no more clothes or shoes for the month. I also opened a new account at my credit union that has a much higher yield, and it's designed for people who have a tough time saving, with minimum deposit each month to avoid penalties. I'm hoping the higher yield and threat of penalties will help encourage me to feed it more

 

[Deleted member 12480]

thats a good idea - what are the penalties like?

 

[Gracie Lee]

I don't remember the exacts off the top of my head, but it's something like $5 plus account fees for each month that you don't make the minimum requirement, and then if you do that for more than 3 months out of any 12, you lose your account, and it all reverts to a regular savings account. The interest rate on the Get Fit (that's what it's called, don't ask me why) account is 4 or 5 times higher than on a regular savings, so that's pretty good motivation to keep it going. Plus, if you keep it going for long enough to save $10,000, they give you an extra $100 as a bonus. I don't expect to live here that long, but it's a nice goal

 

[Deleted member 12480]

that sounds Pretty good!