No Spend November Week #4 and Summary

We survived a no (actually low) spend November!

November 22:  Big Lots $3 for sundries, Baskin Robbins $5 for coffee drink

November 23:  Albertsons $11 for groceries

November 24:  Mexican restaurant $15 for lunch, gas $44, Baskin Robbins $5 for coffee drink

November 25:  $0

November 26:  99 Cent Store $17 for groceries, Burger King $8, Baskin Robbins $5 for coffee drink

November 27:  $0

November 28:  Baskin Robbins $5 for coffee drink

November 29:  99 Cent Store $13 for groceries

November 30:  Black Bear Diner $18 for lunch, Baskin Robbins $5 for coffee drink

Total spent this week:  $174, again, this is way over our $125 budget for the week but this also includes two extra days added to the week to complete the month.

And some other things...

• We finally had to turn on the heat because it was getting cold!  It was nice having two months of really low utility bills though.
• Needless to say, we eat out way too much and I am literally addicted to Baskin Robbins coffee drinks  :(
• I avoided buying anything on Black Friday/Cyber Monday.  I had several things sitting in my Amazon shopping cart but after some thought, I decided I really didn't need the items so deleted everything (and saved myself several hundred dollars!).  I would really like some new high-end earbuds and headphones but in reality I use these things maybe once a month at most so I don't really need these things when the ones I have work perfectly fine for the short time I use them every month.
• Today is our 31st anniversary!  Hubby and I have been together exactly 35 years (we met the Saturday after Thanksgiving) and married for exactly 31 years--we got married the Friday after Thanksgiving.  In a bowling alley.  In the middle of hubby's bowling league.  It was the most inexpensive wedding ever but it was memorable and all of our friends were there and it was so much fun.
• We got several freebies this week: a friend gave us a $45 gift card for a grocery store which we used this week for groceries (we bring an elderly lady breakfast once a week when we bowl with her and this week she gave us a nice card and this gift card).  The SIL paid for us to have a nice lunch out this week because we went and claimed her lost jewelry which she was very thankful for.  The SIL also paid for hubby and I to get manicures and pedicures for our anniversary which we had done today (see my nails above).  Hubby also got 16 free games of bowling through one of his bowling leagues so we went bowling yesterday and played a couple of games each.  
• Needless to say, if we didn't eat out all month and I made coffee drinks at home instead of buying them, we would have probably hit our goal of $500 for spending this month but hubby was still impressed that we spent around $700 this month instead of our usual $1200 to $1500.
  

No Spend November Week #3 Update

I thought this was a cute decoration one of our neighbors just set up for Christmas.  In other news, this was a busy week!

November 15: Sam's Club $40 for groceries, post office $28 (!) to mail a package to Japan, Seafood City $25 for groceries

November 16: Baskin Robbins $5 for coffee drink

November 17: Black Bear Diner $40 for lunch, Baskin Robbins $5 for coffee drink, bingo $18 for hubby and I to play one session

November 18: $0

November 19: Tire air check $2 for tip to service guy

November 20: Black Bear Diner $43 for brunch, Baskin Robbins $5 for coffee drink

November 21: Albertsons $14 for groceries

Total spent this week: $225 which is way more than the $125 we were aiming for :(

And some other things...

• Hubby's sister came to visit this week which explains the couple of times we took her out to eat at her new favorite place in Las Vegas, the Black Bear Diner.  She took us out to several nice restaurants as well and we even spent the night with her at the new Resorts World Conrad Hotel (she gets free rooms at many places so she wanted to check out this place.  I thought the place was pretty unimpressive and overly expensive but it was nice of her to invite us.  Hubby and I haven't done any sort of stay-cation on the Strip in years so this was a good experience).
• All of this activity also explains my (several) trips to Baskin Robbins.  I can't drink regular coffee but I can drink coffee when I kill the taste with plenty of ice cream :O  and I needed all of the oomph I could get since we woke early and stayed up late running all over the place with the SIL.
• I sent a birthday present to a friend in Japan and shipping costs more than the gift!  Unfortunately gift giving in Japan is a never-ending thing and I don't want to insult her by not sending a gift so I just suck it up and pay the exorbitant postal cost.
• The SIL came to town for a $750k bingo event.  While we can't play bingo 12 hours a day for three solid days like she does, hubby and I did play one session with her.  Of course we didn't win but when she went back to play the next night, a lady sitting next to her won $47,000!  I guess luck is a big part of winning in bingo!  Unfortunately the SIL spent $4k over the weekend for this bingo event and only won a few hundred dollars  :(
• The air pressure in our tires was low so we got a free tire check at Discount Tires (our favorite tire place) and hubby gave the guy a small tip.  The guy said a lot of people have had low tire pressure lately since when the temperature drops it reduces the air in the tires.  This is a great service they provide and they even rotate our tires for free once a year too!
• This was an interesting infographic about food costs around the world.
• Finally, it is almost December and we still haven't had to turn on our heat yet!
  

No Spend November Week #2 Update

Continuing on with our challenge, here is how we spent our money this week...

November 8: Black Bear Diner $20 for lunch (our weekly lunch date), Albertson's $8 for groceries (loss leaders).

November 9: $0  A no-spend day!

November 10: Arco $20 for gas, 99 Cent Store $15 for groceries, Burger King $8 for lunch.

November 11: Southpoint buffet $5 for tip (the buffet was free for both of us for Veterans Day), Great Clips $5 for tip (hubby got a free haircut here for Veterans Day), Albertsons $11 for groceries (all loss leaders).

November 12: 99 Cent Store $4 for groceries, bowling alley snack bar $7 for lunch (we should have packed a lunch!).

November 13: Baskin Robbins $5 for coffee drink (my once-a-week indulgence!), Panda Express $9 for lunch.

November 14: Ross $21 for a birthday gift for my friend, Dollar Tree $4 for sundries (card, shoe laces, etc).

Total spent this week: $142 which is still more than the $125 we were aiming to spend this week!

And some other things...

• There were many freebies and discounts for Veterans Day and since hubby is a veteran, we took advantage of the free buffet offered to vets and their guest at the Southpoint Casino and hubby got a free haircut at Great Clips too.  We decided not to get any other freebies because we don't need to be eating a mountain of fast food!
• The weather has been so perfect that we haven't had to use the air conditioning OR heat for more than a month.  Usually the weather changes faster than this and we go from AC to heat in about a week so this will be a nice savings on our heating/AC bill!
• Since I am sort of a science geek, I found this 'Timeline of the Human Condition' pretty fascinating.
• Looking back at our spending, I see that we ate out way too much this week!  On the bright side, we skipped our weekly trip to Costco/Sam's Club because we have pretty much everything we need and shopping at these stores just makes us want to buy stuff we don't really need.
  
• The economy still seems to be going off the rails.  Service everywhere is pretty meh, prices on everything, especially food, seem to go up daily, shortages seem to be everywhere as well (lots of random things we look for at the stores seem light or missing all together--our grocery store is missing many kinds of deli meat and didn't have ANY whole turkeys in stock!).
• The government giveth, the government taketh away.  I was happy to hear that hubby would get a nice little COLA added to his social security check starting in January.  Then a few days later I saw where his monthly payment for Medicare which is taken out of his Social Security check would also increase dramatically.  Bummer.
• Finally, I just came across this freebies website and since I need a calendar for next year, I ordered this free calendar which was listed on the website.
  

No Spend November Week #1 Update

The first week of our No Spend November Challenge looks like it will be a low-spend month instead of a no-spend month.  We are trying to keep our discretionary spending under $500 for the month and judging by our spending so far, we better tighten up our spending a bit more to reach that goal!  Here's how we spent our money for the first week (this doesn't count monthly bills):

November 1: Sam's Club $24 for groceries (this is the least we've ever spent there!), Mexican grocery store $6 for groceries (their produce is super cheap), Buffet at Asia $26 (our favorite buffet, obviously we should have skipped this for our challenge but it is our habit to eat out once a week), another Mexican store $12 for groceries.

November 2: Great Clips $20 for a haircut and tip (hubby cuts my hair once or twice between professional haircuts; it's been about three months since my last professional haircut and I was looking pretty shaggy!), Albertson's $13 for groceries.

November 3: Arco $12 for gas, 99 Cent store $14 for groceries.

November 4: Movies $8 (we haven't been to the movies in ages and hubby really wanted to see No Time to Die before it left the theater so we went on senior day when tickets are $4 each)

November 5: Food at the bowling center $8 (we really should have packed our lunch like we usually do when hubby bowls but we were running late so we ate there).

November 6:  A no spend day!  Actually I participated in a preparedness exercise with the city and they provided all kinds of food and snacks so we didn't spend anything this day.

November 7:  Baskin Robbins $5 for a B n R Blast (at least I cut this bad habit down to once a week instead of twice or three times a week!

Total spent this week: $148  eeekkk  We were hoping to spend around $125 so we need to cut down a bit more next week!

Day 30 No Spend November (And the Wrap Up)

Today is November 30th and thus the last day of my no spend challenge.  It is also the hubby and my 23rd anniversary (23 years married, 27 years--exactly--living together...wow!).  We went out for dinner tonight for our anniversary and spent a grand total of $8.77 (77 cents on the meal because we had a $50 gift certificate that hubby won playing free online poker and $8 for the tip).  The dinner was fine but I am just not a fan of fancy restaurants.  I prefer to eat at home and if there is something I don't make very well (like Indian food) then I enjoy going to hole-in-the-wall restaurants that are cheap and filled with lots of locals.  But we had the gift certificate so the meal was basically free so I can't complain.

And now, channeling my inner Dar, I give you these facts and figures about our no spend month:

• we had 10 no spend days
• we spent $100 on gas (I only recorded $50 spent on gas but hubby keeps records of this and said we did indeed spend $50 twice)
• we spent $147.65 at the grocery store
• we spent $23 on tips
• we spent $29.66 on eating out (including my Blasts, hubby's coffee, fast food, etc)
• we spent $11 on hobbies (hubby's bowling, my volksmarches)
• I spent $40 on a gift
• we spent $108.59 on unexpected expenses (sale on cologne, dentist, certified mail, a copy because my printer broke down, and wiper blades because ours flew off the car)

And some conclusions:

• having no spend days saves money, the more the better
• staying home more often leads to no spend days AND saves us gas
• groceries were pretty low but we had a lot of meat in the freezer so an average month might see us spend $200 on groceries (we cook almost everything from scratch so don't buy much processed food).  The $1 and 99 cent stores save us A LOT of money as does shopping loss leaders at our local grocery store.  I need to kick my junk food habit.
• we spent too much money on tips, mostly in casinos for coffee in the poker room and at restaurants.  We need to work on cutting this down.
• we spent too much eating out.  Like I said, I don't even like eating out but most of these expenses are because I didn't plan ahead and make something to eat at home then ended up out and about and starving.  The good thing is that nearly everywhere we eat, we get the meal part free with hubby's casino comps, the bad part is that we still need to tip (see above)
• our hobby expenses will skyrocket next month.  Hubby pays for his bowling a month at a time--for three leagues--which he will do in the upcoming week (he paid at the end of October which is why this expense didn't show up in November.  Also my annual dues for my volksmarch club and genealogy club will be coming up in December.
• We generally don't spend much on gifts but December will see a jump in this category as well because of Christmas.
• I think unexpected expenses show up each month, some small and some big.  Fortunately November was a small expense month in this category (although I would have been happy not to have had to go to the dentist or buy wiper blades or come across a really good sale on cologne)

Some things that helped with this challenge: 

• Hubby and I were both on the same page with this challenge and both working towards the same goal (we wouldn't have cut our expenses nearly as much if one of us was spending like crazy and the other wasn't)
• We don't have kids at home (with just the two of us, we don't have the huge grocery bills we did when the kids lived at home.  Also kids always seem to have a massive amount of unexpected expenses)
• We are both retired (this makes it much easier to have the time to cook from scratch, shop sales, decide not to leave the house for a day, etc)
• We don't have bad habits that drain our finances (some years ago we would think nothing of eating out two or three meals a day, nearly every day.  Ditto for stopping by Starbucks on an almost daily basis on the way to meetings, mostly out of habit)

In summary:

If you want to reign in your spending, doing a no or low spend month is a great way to accomplish this.  Really making an effort to NOT spend money is a good exercise in self control, and making yourself record every expenditure then doing the calculations at the end of the month is a great way to see where your money is going.  So many times we spend money on small things and not even notice it but small things really add up!

And next month:

I am going to do a health month.  I know people always start their health challenges in January but through (much) previous experience I know this doesn't work for me (I generally fall off the wagon around day 10).  I will make a concerted effort to move more and eat better among other things.  Of course, I hope to retain the money habits I have started to establish during the last month.

Day 29 No Spend November

I can't believe November is almost over and that we have stuck with the No Spend challenge all month!  Except for some days.  Except for yesterday when we spent...

• Hubby played poker in the morning and spent $1 for a tip to the waitress (we got a coffee and a bottled water for free from her).
• Our anniversary is Saturday but I decided to give hubby his present early since it fit into our schedule better so I spent $40 on a massage for him.  He loves professional massages and since he has been bowling so much his body has been very crunchy.
• I picked up some chard for $1.99 at the store (I need iron and find that eating greens--like chard--a couple of times a week does my body good).
• We stopped by the 99 cent store and spent $7.14.  We bought: 3 heads romaine lettuce, 5 lbs potatoes, 1.5 lbs apples, a box of hot cocoa mix, a loaf of bread, a half pint of whipping cream (for the leftover pumpkin pie), a Nestle crunch bar, and some poster board (hubby always makes me a card for our anniversary).

Total spent: $50.13

Day 28 No Spend November

Yesterday was Thanksgiving so we stayed home and spent $0.  Hubby and I cooked up a storm and invited the cousins over for dinner where we all proceeded to eat until we couldn't eat any more (and then a while later we ate some more!).  We ended up with tons of leftovers, most of which we sent home with the cousins, with enough for us to eat a few more meals as well.

We had no desire at all to shop on Black Friday (which is now pretty much Black Thanksgiving since many stores opened on Thursday).  So we enjoyed the "100% off Black Friday sale" and didn't end up like these people.

While I was waiting for the turkey to roast and the potatoes to boil, I decided to calculate what our Thanksgiving meal cost.  Here's the breakdown:

• Turkey (13 lbs)  $5 (bought on sale after last year's holidays)
• Stuffing (2 boxes)  $2 
• Cranberry sauce  $1
• Dinner rolls  $1
• Gravy (4 packets)  $2
• Corn (2 cans)  $2
• Yams (2 cans)  $2
• Mashed potatoes $1
• Cucumber and ranch dressing  $1
• Rice  $1
• Filipino stew  $3
• Pork roast  $4
• Butter  $2 (used on rolls, in potatoes, etc)
• Apple pie  $2
• Pumpkin pies (2 pies)  $3
• Chocolate cake  $1
• Soda/bottled water  $2

For a grand total of $35 we cooked a huge meals with days worth of leftovers.  The way we saved money on all of this food was by cooking from scratch, buying items on sale, and shopping at the 99 cent store.  We could have halved the cost of the meal by only cooking half of what we did (and we probably still would have had leftovers) but we are used to cooking for a crowd and everyone knows that when they come to our house for dinner they always end up taking food home as well (the cousins even show up with empty food containers we have them trained so well!).  We also could have saved money if I would have made the rolls from scratch, used frozen corn instead of canned, made fresh yams instead of canned, and made my own stuffing (takes a lot of time) and gravy (it never comes out right when I make it from scratch).

Overall we had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I'm off now to eat leftovers for breakfast!

Day 27 No Spend November

I thought we would get away with a no spend day yesterday but we realized that we forgot to buy dinner rolls the day before so a quick trip to the 99 cent store netted us a bag of dinner rolls for a total of $1 spent.

I got all of my baking done last night (see photo above), and we are expecting only a few people for Thanksgiving dinner (more like lunch) which means we will have lots of leftovers in the coming days.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!!

Day 26 No Spend November

Yesterday was definitely better than the day before but we did spend some money...

• We started off with no internet in the morning and couple of ranty phone calls from me to the cable company (apparently this morning everyone else had their internet back except me so it must be my modem.  They said they would send out a tech.).
• I put the dentist's coupon an a flash drive, we both grabbed our laptops and headed to the library.  I paid 10 cents at the library for them to print out my coupon and hubby set up his computer there and watched Netflix while I got some work done using their free internet.  Hubby paid $1 for a coffee from the machine at the library which came out mostly water but since it was a vending machine from some company he didn't get a refund.  Bummer.
• After we left the library we got hubby a cup of coffee at the gas station for $1.50.  He should have brought coffee from home but I was in such a hurry we just fled the house in the morning so that was my mistake.
• Next stop dentist.  I got a coupon off his website for complete x rays and an exam for $39.  Turns out my teeth are in great shape (for my age...why do people have to preface statements with "for your age"??) but my gums are sensitive and need below the gum line cleaning and he said I should probably quit clenching my jaw when I am stressed.  Aarrrr  At least I was really happy with this dentist, his staff, and his office so I will be going back.
• After the dentist we stopped by Del Taco and spent $2.49 on three tacos and a burrito.  Again, my fault, I didn't want to stop and eat breakfast after I had already brushed and flossed my teeth so decided to wait until after the dentist to eat.  If I wasn't in such a hurry to get out of the house I would have made us sandwiches but that was the last thing on my mind this morning.
• We went to Walmart next and spent $15.73 on two wipe blades, a small can of Crisco so I can make pies for Thanksgiving and a half quart of whipping cream for said pies.
• Finally we went to the 99 cent store for more Thanksgiving stuff and spent $13.20 on: 4 quarts of chicken broth, 2 lbs tangerines, toothpaste, a can of evaporated milk, a can of yams, a can of cranberry sauce, 2 green peppers, 2 cucumbers, denture cleanser, and a box of junior mints (I pretty much need chocolate on a regular basis).
• After all of our errands we came home to working internet!  So I was able to rack up a few more hours and turn in my hour sheet for the month with close to 60 hours (my goal each month is 60 hours which gives me an extra $1000...more would be even better!).
• Also in the afternoon a girl came and bought two chairs we had listed on Craigslist for $15.  This was awesome because the chairs were free to us--we found them down the street next to the neighbors garbage and next to the boxes for the two new chairs they got--and hubby had to do minimal cleaning to make them look good.  Also, hubby suddenly decided that buying stuff cheap at the Goodwill and finding usable things in people's trash and reselling them is a great idea and he is eager to get started on this new business venture! 

Total spent: $73.02  Ouch!

And a useful article: 100 ways to make $100 fast

Day 25 No Spend November

AKA the day from Hell.  We spent a total of $6.08 yesterday for two breakfast sandwiches from Jack in the Box ($2.59) and $3.49 for a Blast at Baskin Robbins.  And then:

• Our internet went out the evening before and after much calling and arguing with the tech who insisted our modem was broken this morning we took the modem to the office, got a new modem, took it home, plugged it in, and found that it wasn't the modem (there was a repair guy outside our house who said it was an issue with the line for the whole neighborhood which apparently none of the tech people I talked to knew about).  Took the new modem back to the store. Still no internet.
• So I grabbed by cell phone and computer and raced to the casino so hubby could bowl and I could use the casino's free internet to do a call in meeting with a client and get some work done which required internet access to do (plus I had to stand outside for the entire hour and a half of the meeting call in because it was so loud in the casino).  Not happy.
• Went home and waited for another tech to come out to the house to fix the internet.  He got there, said "the line in your street is broken", (duh), he did a bunch of useless stuff (like replacing a perfectly good co ax cable which didn't need replacing and had absolutely no impact on the dead line outside) and left.  Still no internet.
• Made an appointment for the dentist because my teeth were bothering me.  I couldn't print off the coupon from his website because my printer needed a new driver (which requires the internet to load).
• Called a church I tithe to monthly because the payment I made on their website hadn't cleared for over a month; after much research they said their system had a glitch and my debit card wouldn't be charged.  So I need to redo the transaction (which requires internet).
• Went to Baskin Robbins and got a blast but forgot to get my receipt which has a $1 off coupon on it.
• Called a supervisor at the cable company to see when the line in the street would be fixed and he said the dispatcher would call me back.  No one called me back.
• Hubby had to scrounge up some old movies to watch since he watches all of his movies online and we didn't have internet.  He found the Godfather series which is nine hours of movies. Yippee.
• Needed to get a document out ASAP for a client.  Had to do the research for in ON MY CELL PHONE which was the only internet access I had then transferred the document to my cell phone so I could email it to her.
• I billed another client who was three months behind in paying me so I sent a passive aggressive note about needing to be paid.

Overall a crappy day and we still didn't end up with internet by the time we went to bed.

Day 24 No Spend November

I stayed home and did a bunch of work yesterday (trying to rack up the hours for this month's pay period!) and hubby went to the casino.  I specifically made him lunch before he left yet he still spent $1 on a hot dog (he said a guy walked by with one and it looked good...).  The hubby stopped by two stores on the way home and spent $4.69 at Albertsons (a quart of ice cream, one banana, and 18 eggs) and $13.68 at the 99 cent store (2 boxes of stuffing, box of junior mints, Nestlee crunch bar, 2 pack of scotch tape, can of oysters, 4 bunches of cilantro, quart of milk, 2 lbs onions, bag of broccoli, 12 dinner rolls, 1 lb tomatoes, raw ginger, tub of yogurt).  We still have a few other things to get for Thanksgiving but that will be another day.

Total spent today: $19.37

Day 23 No Spend November

Yesterday we stayed home and spent $0.  It's been pouring rain for four days straight so we weren't really inspired to leave the house anyway.  Plus, when hubby used the windshield wipers on the car the last time we went out they both went flying off!  Which means our first stop when we do leave the house will be the store to pick up some new wiper blades.  Since it only rains here a couple of times a year and all the other time the sun is beating down on the car, the plastic pieces don't have a long lifespan (I told hubby to buy the blades but leave them in the car until he needs them then he could pull over and put them on and thus save the blades from imminent sun destruction).

On other notes:

• I get a lot of work done when we are at home.  My friend wants me to get in at least 80 hours a month of work but so far I think I am only at like 45 hours so I will be writing grants like a maniac this week to add more hours.
• I have a couple of teeth that are really bothering me so I think I will see if I can find a dentist here in Las Vegas to take a look at them (some dentist offices have coupons for exams and x rays for around $40).  If the work is minor I will have it done here, if it is major (which I think it is because I have a whole row of crowns that are 25+ years old in the area that isn't feeling well) we will have to bite the bullet and go to Connecticut where my sister in law can do the work.  Fortunately we have enough air miles to get free tickets, unfortunately it means we will be in Connecticut in DECEMBER.  Brrrr
• This is probably one of the best articles I've read on being poor in...ever.  I'm one of those judgmental people that shakes my head when I see poor make bad decisions which seem to entrench them even more in poverty ("you are flat broke why are you smoking???" "you can't even support yourself why are you having another KID???").  Well this article kind of explains those things in a weirdly rational manner.

Day 22 No Spend November

We left the house yesterday and actually didn't spend any money! Yeah!

We skipped bingo this morning because we were both tired but we did go bowling (hubby bowls, I cheer him on).  The drinks are free at bowling and no tip is needed so that's a good thing.  Then hubby played poker for an hour and won $27 (and he is still playing on last month's play money!).  Drinks in the poker room are free as well.  We ate breakfast at home before we left and had a late lunch at home when we got back and somehow we avoided spending any money.  Nine more days until I can go shopping!

Day 21 No Spend November

Yesterday I stayed home and did some work while hubby went and played poker.  He really can't be trusted to go to the store by himself!  Hubby had coffee while he played poker at a cost of $1.08 then he said he was going to run by the store to get some hot french bread and ended up spending $11.62!  He bought: sesame candy for me (at least he is thinking of me?), a box of crystallized ginger (he is diabetic and when his blood sugar tanks this candy yanks it back up to normal range), a bundle of spinach (for a soup he wanted to make), two bags of potato chips (because they were on sale and "right in front of him"), and the loaf of french bread (which was the only item he went to the store to get).  Total spent today: $12.70.

And five more things:

1. It has been raining here for more than 24 hours.  This is the most rain I've ever seen in Vegas!
2. I told the hubby I am doing this endurance walk in May.  He looked at me like O-O
3. I was missing the Pacific Northwest but now that is is so overcast and rainy I think I will only miss the Pacific Northwest in the summer and be thankful I am not there in the winter.
4. We finally had to turn the heat on (again).  We had the heat on for a couple of days at the beginning of the month but it warmed up so we turned it off.  It is cold now so on goes the heat, probably until late February.
5. Hubby just took the turkey out of the freezer and put in the fridge so it could start defrosting.  We bought it after the holidays last year and saw on the still-attached price tag that we paid $5 for it.  Wow.

Day 20 No Spend November

Yesterday was a busy day and since we left the house, we spent money :I

• First stop, bowling.  Hubby has one of his regular bowling leagues on Wednesday (which he pays for once a month) but this Wednesday was a special fundraiser for the typhoon that hit the Philippines so he put in $20 for the fundraiser and $10 for a high game pot (whoever gets the highest game wins the money).  He won $25 for one of the high game pots so his actual expenditure for this was $5.
• Then, since we were out all day, we ate at the casino (again! ayayay).  The dinner was free with hubby's comps but we left a $4 tip.
• Next I dropped hubby off to play poker on the way to one of my club meetings and he spent $1.08 on coffee.
• And since tonight was my volksmarch club meeting and we meet at Starbucks and I can't pass up Starbucks, I spent $4 on a hot cocoa there.

Total spent: $14.08 eekkk 

Day 19 No Spend November

Yesterday we left the house which means we spent money:

• I did another volksmarch (part of my walking goal) which cost $3 but was well worth it.  The exercise was wonderful and the locations (through the university and a business park, all with lots of grass and trees) were wonderful as well.
• Hubby played poker, this time at a casino that doesn't have free coffee so he spent $1.08 for coffee which had unlimited refills.
• Then we hit the 99 cent store on our way home and spent $6.60 on a loaf of bread, a bag of frozen strawberries, 2 lbs of key limes, a container of wafer cookies, thin mints, a Hershey's candy bar, and six mini candy bars (apparently I was having a snack attack).

Total spent: $10.68

Day 18 No Spend November

Today we spent $3.68.  First stop, bingo.  Although the bingo is free and we each get two free drinks (a bottled water and hot cocoa for me, coffee and an orange juice for hubby) we still tip the serving staff $1.  And since we were at the casino for bingo, bowling (where drinks are free as well but no tip is needed), and poker we ended up eating a late lunch at the casino of which $8 was free with hubby's comps but the tax (68 cents) and the tip ($2) weren't included.

Day 17 No Spend November

We stayed home yesterday which means we spent $0!  I guess being a hermit is a cheap way to live.

We started our first free month of Netflix yesterday.  Before, hubby would get an arm load of movies each week at the library but that meant we had to make a trip to the library each week so the movies wouldn't end up overdue even if we had nothing else to do in the area (a waste of gas, kind of).  Then he found some Filipino movie and TV stations online that he could watch but these were kind of (mostly) hit or miss as to quality and quantity.  Finally yesterday I broke down and insisted he try Netflix.  It will be a monthly expense of $7.99 if he decides to stick with it after the first free month but so far he has watched about four movies and appears to like the quality, quantity, and easy availability of this online movie system that nearly everyone else seems to have.

And five upcoming things (all requiring money):

1. Thanksgiving.  Our cousins will be in town so we will cook Thanksgiving dinner.  We have a turkey from last year in the freezer but will need to buy all of the trimmings (Dollar Store here I come!).
2. A need for presents.  Three friends have birthdays coming up within the next month, hubby's birthday is in two months, our anniversary is coming up in a few weeks, and don't even get me started on Christmas...ayayay.
3. My teeth don't feel happy.  I should get to the dentist but the local dentist I went to before was OK but not great and I feel like I need a great dentist which means I will need to haul myself to Connecticut so my sister-in-law who is an awesome dentist can fix up my teeth.
4. Hubby will start Medicare on his upcoming birthday which means an extra $104 will be taken out of his Social Security check each month.  While we can afford it--even though we live on a mostly fixed income--that is a lot of money to suddenly be losing :(
5. I have a lot of walking trips I want to take in 2014, some of which require deposits, all of which require airfare to get to the locations of the walks.  This will require A LOT of money.  Again, ayayay.

Day 16 No Spend November

Yesterday wasn't a no spend day but I can justify!  Justify, justify, justify!

• I did a volksmarch which was $3.  I skipped the last one a couple of weeks ago thinking it would be a good way to save money but this weekend I felt like I really needed the exercise and since one of my major goals is to do lots and lots of volksmarches, I felt this was money well spent (the six mile walk was awesome too).
• While we ate breakfast at home in the morning, we ended up being out all day and without bringing a lunch we were starving so we went to a buffet which cost a total of $2 for the tip (hubby's comps paid for the actual meals).
• Then we stopped by the store on the way home and spent $7.23 for: 3 bolilo rolls, a bundle of chard, a case of water, and 4.5 lbs pork trimmings (hubby makes Filipino food with these).

Total spent yesterday: $12.23.  Obviously a fail when it comes to no spend days but this process of spending as little as possible has both saved us a lot of money and made us look really hard at each item we purchase.

Plus, REI had a BIG SALE today and while I looked and tried on and dreamed and tried to justify, I ended up buying nothing.  Yeah me.

Plus plus, after lunch at the casino hubby played poker for an hour (still using his play money from last month) and won $100.  Yeah hubby.

Day 15 No Spend November

Yesterday would have been a no spend day, except I was feeling the need for a "pick me up" and before I knew it, I had a Baskin Robbins blast in my hand.  Total spent: $3.45 :(