Hellobee Boards

Did not buy a SBUX this morning! And it's literally about 50 feet from my desk.

I moved $400 more over to savings this morning (total for the month is +$500 more than our target savings goal for each month!) and I sent our tithe check for the month.

November is a 3-paycheck month for us, so trying to stretch it as far as possible and bulk up our savings! We're working on Dave Ramsey's step 3 from Financial Peace University, and are a little more than 2/3 of the way done!

I packed my lunch for work today! Also, I made the decision to divert $25/week into a separate savings account in order to put money aside for home improvements.

Been eating from my stock pile in the pantry and freezer. I walk over to starbucks with coworkers, just for the walk but not buy anything. Making coffee at home every morning now. Cancelled my DVR service and record TV with my laptop now - saves $20/month.

We changed our cable from timewarner to RCN. We're saving a ton.

Cut my christmas budget dramatically and convinced a bunch of my family members to do a secret Santa instead of individual gifts.

Whenever we have a date night planned, we always try and use coupons, or gift cards for at least a portion of it too!

Cooking from the freezer and pantry fir the rest of the week. I haven't bought breakfast, lunch or coffee in ages. I look back and I'm sort of horrified at how much I spent!

Oh man. This is huge for us right now. We have gotten very intense with paying off our debt and saving the last few months. We have paid off a very significant amount of debt this year and are on track to have no consumer debt by february.

We started a savings plan for maternity leave last year and that is almost completely funded. We use the envelope system for eating out, groceries, and fun money for dh and i. We're not going on any big trips until this debt is gone. We really haven't had to sacrifice unrealistically but rather we are watching where we spend our money instead of impulse buying.

We've been eating up what we have, put $20 in next years christmas club account (we are struggling so much with this this year), and haven't went to Target this week oh and turned in my Pampers points for baby wash, free!

I keep bringing the frozen food that I am SO SICK OF EATING to work anyway so I don't spend like $7-$10 on lunch!

Christmas is where I'm really proud of myself!

- gift exchange between cousins instead of buying for every nephew/niece on my side (6 of them now)
- Traveling to IKEA for bulk of my Christmas presents (okay this may seem silly to some but the closest one is 3 hours away from us, and it will be saving me about $200 in gifts!)
- We have altered our cable/internet/phone packages recently saving us $100 a month.
- Overall we've been hoarding money lately with me going on maternity leave with no paycheck coming up in the spring.

I just made an inventory list of everything in my chest freezer and I'm committing to using something from it every day to 1) make space for thanksgiving stuff and 2) spend less money on groceries by meal planning based on what I already have!

I brought my lunch today (and breakfast and snacks) instead of hitting the cafeteria. I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now, both to save $$ and to control calories.

Also this month we refi’d our mortgage into a 15-year loan vs. 30-year. It will be a bit tighter than usual for the next couple of years while LO is still in daycare, but it will be much better in the long term to have the house paid off in 15 years or less.

I have be bad lately on my impulse shopping at lunch (legit needed to pick some things up for our vacation next month, which turned into picking up extra stuff we definitely didn't need...) so I need to get back on track with that. If I make myself go to the gym every day at lunch (which I've done this week), that will curb spending and of course be better for me, health-wise.

@.twist.: The annoying thing is that I have GD right now so my lunch options are very limited already. We just haven't cooked or had leftovers, so these frozen foods are the cheapest, plus I know they work well for my blood sugar. But it's okay.. Just a few more weeeeekkkssss

it's not really something i've done just now, but i have our auto ins set so that we don't pay nov or dec (not sure if all ins policies are this way, but ours you pay 10 months out of the year and then have 2 off before the new one starts, no idea why they do it that way!), i like it because it leaves a few hundred extra in the checking account around the holidays.

i've also been trying to be better about making recipes i can transition to other meals after. like i'll roast a chicken one night, then make a casserole and soup out of the leftovers, same chicken, just using the whole thing different ways so it gets eaten without getting boring. i started buying chicken base in a jar that you keep in the fridge instead of cartons of broth or stock because i wouldn't finish the carton & i'd have to throw it away, so just mixing what i need saves me $$.

for using less electricity (or spending less on it ), i try to to charge things elsewhere. i charge my phone in the car (charges faster there anyway!), i charge my laptop when i'm at work or in cafes. i ordered a lamp so that i don't always turn on whole sets of lights (most of my light switches turn on 4 lights).

this one is kind of stupid, but i throw away car trash at stores or drive throughs instead of bringing it home and throwing it away. i pay per bag for trash pick up. recycling is free though, so i recycle everything i possibly can!

i use swagbucks all the friggin time! i had enough amazon gift cards from them to almost cover my entire S&S order for the month (which had like 12 items). sometimes i save those to put towards gifts, you just have to plan in advance because you can only redeem so many at a time for each place and you don't get them right away.

@mrs. bird: lol at the throwing away trash at other places! I do that too! I mean, might as well save room in my trash can?!

Other things we do is:
- stock up on meat when on sale & use frozen veggies when we can.
- DH just landed a huge account that should become in affect beginning next year, so his paycheck will be doubling if not tripling for the year, we plan on paying off ALL debt with the quick inflate, knowing it won't last more than a year or two so when it goes back to normal we have no bills and a nice balance in savings. I know this isn't an option for everyone, but this will make our life a lot easier!

Not specifically today

1. We cleaned out our storage lockers and condo and sold a whole bunch of stuff on Kijiji that we weren't using anymore and made almost $1,000
2. Bringing my lunch everyday (as much as possible) to save $10-$15 per day, amazing how quickly it adds up
3. Took inventory of gift cards we have at home and have been using them up to buy Christmas gifts which should mean some of this years Christmas fund will roll over to next year!
4. We have been putting away $$$ every paycheck to top up my EI while on mat leave since I am the primary earner in our house.
5. Aggressively paying off our debt and based on the way things are going we will be consumer debt free before the baby arrives in April!

@mrs. bird: haha, I did that when I lived in Europe...garbage bags cost about $3 EACH, so I would regularly bring a small bag to the train station or grocery store, super stealth of course!