Hello Ladies,

All great ideas. The questions I want to ask myself before spending money in 2007 is
1. Do I/we realllllllllllllly NEED this item?
2. Can it be done cheaper.
3. Can this item be purchased a the Dollar Tree
4. Can this service be batered...this is going to be challenging because I need to build a bartering network first.

My biggest weakness is eating out fast food. It is bad for my health and wallet. Primarly MCD's fries, and Coke, love them. I do really well though about not buying any junk food for the house. I do not have enough self control not to eat the entire bag of something so I do not even buy it. This way, we save money, and our health at the same time...that makes it easier to pass up at th store.

I need to pay for car insurance. I pay 6 months at a time, because it is $100+ cheaper than paying month by month. Groceries is the only other thing that I need.

I am in to . I have to go food shopping. and my oldest needs some shoes. But other than that we should be o.k. . Now the mad dash to pay off the cc. This year is the year!

Count me in too! I will only be buying groceries, we are out of everything, we've only been eating what we have in the freezer and cabinets since mid December, I was trying to empty everything so I could try Once A Month Cooking.

We will buy clothes with the stack of gift cards we received at Christmas.

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DS-16
DD-12
DD-4
DS-2

I have already decided to cut spending this month. This support really helps to reinforce it. I'm not buying anything unless I really need it and trying to cut out eating out. I just hope I can succeed and carry it into Feb. and the coming months.

I'm up for the challenge.

Here are my goals for the month.
1) Buy basic groceries only (no pop, chips, chocolate milk or other 'extras')
2) Don't buy any clothes (We have enough to last through the winter.)
3) No books. (I can go to the library.)
4) No magazines (see above).
5) Recycle all catalogs before even looking at them. (I won't 'need' what I don't see.)

Other than gas for the car, food for the family, no extras for me this month.

It's so much easier doing this challenge knowing there are others out there doing the same thing.

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[quote=KathrynHannah]

5) Recycle all catalogs before even looking at them. (I won't 'need' what I don't see.)

QUOTE]

I usually save catalogs for ideas, but I agree with you... I already got rid of one in the recycle bin before I even brought it inside. I just tore off the address label and so I can call the company to get removed from their mailing list.

I'm in...DH has NO over time this next check and with the mortgage due, I need to S-T-R-E-T-C-H this one! The only thing extra I will be paying for this month is an oil change for the truck...It's due, but I DO have a coupon from Dodge for a 16.95 change,so that saves a little $.

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These are the things I'm going to challenge myself & my family to:
1) No extra spending. I'm going to only buy the nessecties (sp?). I'll make snacks (cookies, etc for school lunches). No pop, ready made sweets, etc.
2) Use it up!! I refuse, refuse, refuse to throw out another wasted left over. This one is going to be really hard. But I finally realized how much $ I was throwing away.
3) Dine out only once a pay period. Dining out has lost it's specialness. It's no longer the treat it used to be, we've eaten at every resturant so often, nothing sounds good anymore.

So how is everyone doing so far? I've been good, albiet only the 3rd of the month! I bought 2 rolls of wrap for .24 each, 1 set of ornaments for .94 and one gift regular 19.99 for 5.00. I haven't bought anything else that I did not intend to like formula and fresh fruit etc.
Hope everyone else is making out ok!

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