JULY challenge: Living off your Stockpile. RESULTS ARE IN!

[cody82414]

Is anyone up for a JULY challenge to live off of your stockpile and spend as little out of pocket as you can?


These are the guidelines:

We are going to do a one month challenge contest by living off your stockpile and only buying the bare necessities each week. Post your weekly results here.

Each week I will try to chime in with our family's weekly "living off stockpile" issues/results/recipes/receipts.

Anyone else up for the challenge?

Exceptions:
1. Rolling RR, Catalinas, ECBs, existing gift cards, rebate funds that come in during the month.
2. Finding Items for FREE.
3. Finding items for less than $.10 on the dollar.

Can you do it?

FAQ

Q. What about fresh fruit, veggies, milk and bread?

A. Buy all your necessities each week to go with what you have in your pantry/freezer. This is all about cleaning out your stockpile. Here is an example: Say your usual weekly food budget is $150, and you would like to spend only $50 per week on the bare minimum, like veggies, fruit and milk. You would be saving $100 a week for the month of June.

Q. Can we roll ECBs, RR, and Catalinas?

A. Of course! Only the out of pocket expenses count as what you have spent for the week. Here is an example: We have $40 in ECBs and $12 in Catalinas. If I go to the store and use my ECBs, only the amount of money I spent on items after coupons and ECBs count toward my weekly expeditures.

Q. What does $.10 on the dollar items mean?

A. We can't resist a sale can we? Of course not, that's probably why we have stockpiles in the first place! So if your local grocer is having a sale on an item that is normal $4.00 and with a sale price and coupon discount you can get the item for $.40 or less, than it doesn't count towards your weekly expeditures.

Q. How is the winner of the stockpile challenge figured?

A. The winner of the stockpile challenge is the person that spends the least amount of out of pocket expenses for the month of June. Each week anyone participating will post their weekly out of pocket amount. I will mark it down in a spreadsheet. At the end of the month, the person with the least amount of money spent for the month of June will win. We don't want you to starve! Complete nutrition is a must especially for small children. This is going to be fun and hopefully we will all learn some valuable information about ourselves about sustainability and ingenuity.

Q. What about gift money? Or Rebate checks that come in during the month?

A. Simply speaking, my goal is to not spend money out of pocket.
Of course we all have "standard" expenses, such as mortgage/rent, car payments, insurance, utilities, medications, etc.
It's all 'other' money's: including food - which I feel includes dining out, hba, household items, entertainment, et al.
What I do not expect is those involved to stay home all month, with the lights off, eating cold cereal and milk (although I enjoy cereal ). Just challenge yourself and those in your family to participate, and we will share our experiences and ideas here.

Q. My state taxes food. Does tax count into our oop?

A. Yes. tax is part of our oop (unfortunately for some of us)


It's a contest, so we need prizes!!!!
This month the first place winner will receive a $5.00 gc from KMart from me
The runner-up will get a HUGE potluck of coupons (from me!!)

So? Are you in???


Members currently involved in the challenge:
Name -- Totals So Far through post 476 -- Personal Goals


cody82414 -$37.28 I'm going to try to keep it under $100. total oop
Domestic Gal $95.51 I am shooting for not spending more than $100. OOP for the month
crabtree122202 -$63.72 We spend about $125-$150/month for a family of 5 (incl. a pregnant momma!)
sehrwunderbar my goal will be to just use up as much as I can...
Cynthiabutterfly $130.82 We cut our budget in half for June, from $60/wk to $30. I'd like to stick with $30/wk, so $120 for the month.
cjnelson $-7.01 My problem was not cooking out my stockpile. Rather it was social commitments of eating out. Still would like to cut down on that budget.
mama22qts withdrawn
rdot $198.09 My goal is to spend no more than 200.00 total this month.
tambro $250.00 I hope to cut my spending to $500 this month.
notmstewart $101.42 My goal will be to use our stockpile and spend as little oop as I can.
mom2lucas $155.85 My goal will be to feed my family of four (two adults, one 2 year old, one 8-month old) for $120.
holamelitta $1.34 I'm trying to keep expenses as low as possible. We are a family of three (me, DH, and a 2yo little girl).
Zwella Ingrid $201.72 I want to lower my oop, and my stockpile definitely needs to be used.
Mommy2twocuties $32.31
thickbluebug -$65.72
jennspen $63.51 My goal is to use up stuff that is in my freezer and pantry and spend no more than $200 for the month.
jkelstaten withdrawn My goal is to spend less than $300.
lucky1307 -$53.15 1) Don't spend over $100. 2) Continue using stockpile. 3) Re-stocking my light items. 4) Make donation to food pantry(I give my youngest sis several bags a month)
Imagee I rarely spend more than $20 a week, so I think I'm going to see if I can stick with a goal of less than $50 for the month.
luvmy3boys $90.13 Anyway, would like to keep it under 150 for the month with eating out included.
mom2lucas $25.90
Ggbwg withdrawn I'm shooting for $250.00 for this month If i do less great if i do more uh oh.
justmama $118.07 Last month our total monthly grocery bill was 223.00. Last month was my best so far this year. Our eating out/entertainment budget was also the lowest at 248.00. SO for the sake of the challenge i think i am going to combine those totals and try for $300.00 for both.
mommaof2kiddos $294.71 I am cutting back to $100 oop a week for a family of 4 (one still in pull ups at night), a large dog and 2 cats.
CouponSAHM withdrawn My goal is to make room for pizza and ice cream in the freezer (yikes we're gonna be eating a lot of veggies!!) and keep my ending OOP at $100
tn20 I would like to aim for $50 a week OOP, but it seems like that will be hard to do- I usually go to the grocery store and spend $150 in one trip.
b2karen $69.06 I'm setting a goal of $250 for the month for groceries and HBA
doulas3babes -98.02 My goals for this month is to not spend any money at all, continue building my stockpile, and continue sending in for rebates, gc offers, etc. I also count any rebate monies received. I also can't wait to take a load of stuff down to town to the local church to donate to the food pantry.
ashley72906 0.00 I usually try to stay around $100/month for DH and I, so this month I would like to keep it at $60 or lower!
seedlady -$1.16
W0Wme $86.84
blxmomwithdrawn
marshmomof3 withdrawn We are a family of 5 DH, DS 6 DD 4 & DD2 plus 1 dog. My Goal for the month is $150.
LovesDivine $55.40
coupondink -$23.39


* PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF I AM OFF ON YOUR TOTAL OOP*

[Domestic Gal]

Count me in again.

[crabtree122202]

I wanna get in on July's challenge! I've been keeping tabs on June's- but I was just too busy to get into it myself!

We spend about $125-$150 a month for a family of 5 (incl. a pregnant momma!) I know I can get that down lower- if I keep a close eye on my spending/receipts. I just don't usually keep track that closely. But we do need to rotate my stockplie and freezer goodies since we are moving in about 7 weeks. I'm terrible about rotating in new food and eating the oldest first. Need to work on that too for July! I'm sure we'll be donating lots of goodies!

[sehrwunderbar]

I will join this challenge!
I haven't done a challenge before, but we have lots of boxed potatoes and stuff that we haven't even touched from pre-coupon days.They are not expired or anything, but really need to be eaten, so I will definitely focus on using up the stockpile in the month of July.

I guess my goal will be to just use up as much as I can...

[Cynthiabutterfly]

I am in again only because I don't want to go on a spree July 1 after the June challenge. Also, DH is happy that I'm not at the store all the time and bringing in stuff he doesn't know what to do with.

Also, my freezer is still 3/4 full. OKAY, Okay, it's really 9/10ths full. How can I say no to free pizza and almost free hot dogs??

My goal: We cut our budget in half for June, from $60/wk to $30. I'd like to stick with $30/wk, so $120 for the month.

I've got $20.36 worth of free coupons expiring in July, and $20 in Target GC still.
Edited to add:
$13 WAG gc No RR
$12 CVS gc + $11 ecb

[cjnelson]

I was in the first challenge would consider doing one in July. My problem was not cooking out my stockpile. Rather it was social commitments of eating out. Still would like to cut down on that budget.

[mama22qts]

I will try again since there won't be any huge parties this time. I do have DS's birthday to deal with but he doesn't want anything big.

[rdot]

Ok, I am off the sidelines and on to the challenge

I have really been wanting to try this challenge and I have been following the June thread. I have a pretty good stockpile of breakfast foods/frozen foods. It's going to be the meats and produce that get me.

My goal is to spend no more than 200.00 total this month. I have about 20 in ECBs, a 10 Target Gift card, no RR's and some rebate checks that will hopefully appear in the next few days.

[cody82414]

I am in again only because I don't want to go on a spree July 1 after the June challenge. Also, DH is happy that I'm not at the store all the time and bringing in stuff he doesn't know what to do with. Also, my freezer is still 3/4 full. OKAY, Okay, it's really 9/10ths full. How can I say no to free pizza and almost free hot dogs??

My goal: We cut our budget in half for June, from $60/wk to $30. I'd like to stick with $30/wk, so $120 for the month.

I've got $20.36 worth of free coupons expiring in July, and $20 in Target GC still.
Edited to add:
$13 WAG gc No RR
$12 CVS gc + $11 ecb

I am happy to see many doing the challenge again, and I agree with you 'cynthiabutterfly'. It is WAY too easy to wait until the first of the month and "go crazy"!! So good for you to recognize that, and to be aware of that tendency.

Still registering more entrants.
I added my prize winnings to the op if that encourages anyone...

[tambro]

Count me in. Most of you know my situation from the June challenge. My personal goal this month will be to use at least 3 items from the stockpile each day and to finally organize my pantry.

My MIL will be out of town for the month of July, so that will help keep the eating out budget down. I finally have a great stockpile of breakfast items and lunches.

I have:
$50 ECB for CVS
$12 RR for WAGS
and a few rebates that I will receive in July.

I hope to cut my spending to $500 this month. I know this is alot to most, but I was spending between $1200-$1300 per month on groceries and eating out.

I can't wait for July 1st.