SEPTEMBER challenge: Living Off Of Your Stockpile. Unofficial winners post #1091

[cody82414]

Is anyone up for a SEPTEMBER 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.
*** I will do my best to chime in with our family's "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, eggs 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.

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 would 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! Example, 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. Each week anyone participating will post their weekly out of pocket amount. I will keep an accurate count in the original post. At the end of the month, the person with the least amount of money spent for the month 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)

Q. Do perscriptions count?
A. GOSH NO!!! PLEASE don't forego your medications or those for your lo's just to not spend money. No. Perscriptions/meds do not count.

Q. Do birthday presents count and our traditional take the birthday person to their favorite resturant count?
A. As far as birthday gifts/celebrations, we have been counting these events. Simply trying to dine at restaurants we have gc's for and/or B1G1 meals, %'s off, etc. And as far as gifts, we Mom's often times use our gc's and rebate money for gifts for our kids

Just keep in mind that we are trying to live from your stockpile and not to spend oop.
So please celebrate! By all means!! You may just have to do things a bit differently,
***make the cake versus purchasing a Baskin-Robbins or DQ ice cream cake
***home made cards
***host a party at home
***con your IL's to taking your family out for dinner (on them)




It's a contest, so we need prizes!!!!
This month the runner-up will get: a potluck of qs

The first place winner will receive:
an even bigger potluck of qs

So???? Are you in?

Members currently involved in the challenge:
Name -- Totals So Far through post 1091 --- Personal Goals
red denotes money spent, green denotes a profit


cody82414 $61.12 I am going to try to keep it under $50. total oop for the month
amy_s lost withdrawnmy goal is under 150 for the month including eating out.
MoneySavinDiva $83.53 This month I'm lowering that to $200 for groceries and eating out.
soapstone $94.25 My goal is under $150 for the month.
roxygirlie1021 $328.79 I am going to HAVE to stick to a VERY tight budget!
jenrose $140.59 I have no definite $$ figure goal, just to keep myself as low as possible.
rtnrjk $174.22 I will try to be in this month for real. Still going to try a $50 wk goal.
cheynesnana $47.97 I'd like to stay below $150 this month...
Lee0808 withdrawn I'd like to stick to a budget of $80 per week.
Kittensqueak $56.15 I have no idea how this will turn out, but I could really use to save some $$$!!!
cnholland54 withdrawn $200 for the month
LovesDivine $221.96
Zwella Ingrid $248.59 I'm doing $200 for the month inclusive.
tambro withdrawn $400. for the entire month
crabtree122202 under $100/month

rdot $191.32 I am going to keep my budget of 200.00 for the month.

phinphana $283.48 I am in for September for $ 100/month.
Bonniem withdrawn My goal is $75.00.
kmmmom $99.81 I am going to start with a monthly budget of $400.
Ggbwg $3??.??
Lucky1307 $435.15 my goal is no more than $100 a week.
cjpsmom $109.38 My goal this month is $200 for a family of three and a dog.
frugalitymom $98.67 my goal is $100.00 but hopefully way less.
W0Wme +$22.38 my real goal is $0 for the month
coupongirl69 $615.05
couponlover24 $46.00 My goal for the month is 300 bucks
Domestic Gal $204.70 I am in again for $120 for the month.
ELLE-TN $130.13 I will leave my budget at $400 for the month ($100 per week) for my family of 5 which includes two bottomless pitt teenagers
cdarrow $53.72 I will leave my goal at $80 for the month.
DebK1013 $16.00 My budget for grocery/hba/eating out is $300 for the month.
couponSAHM $4.50 My goal is to be: +$50 at the end of the month.
mkermarc $37.00 I am going to try and keep it under $400.
loveebella $257.64 MY goal for the whole month is going to be 250.
hfawn $16.63 this month I'm going to shoot for $200 (hopefully I can do better than that though!).
kandpsmom $4??.?? I would love to get my weekly grocery/diaper budget down to $50.
justmama $55.99 I want to be under $400.00


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

[cody82414]

ooooh! OOOOHH!

Me please

[amy s]

ok, I am in, but I know I will win ONLY the booby prize! :) I will come in last place I am sure!
I will weigh in ont he first with what I have for RR, as we have no other specials here or Gcards.....unless I still have a WM one somewhere....

[MoneySavinDiva]

I am SO in again! I love this challenge...keeps me on my toes My goal for August was to keep it under $240 for everything. This month I'm lowering that to $200 for groceries and eating out.

[soapstone]

I'm in. My goal is under $150 for the month. I have some big rebates I need to fill out this month so that will be a challenge!

[roxygirlie1021]

OK, so I signed up last month and then totally forgot about it until it was almost halfway through the month and at that point I was too far behind to catch up

But count me in for sure this month because I just took a 50% pay cut at work and I am going to HAVE to stick to a VERY tight budget! (And I'm putting a post-it note on my screen right now to remind me to post! )

[cody82414]

ok, I am in, but I know I will win ONLY the booby prize! :) I will come in last place I am sure!
I will weigh in ont he first with what I have for RR, as we have no other specials here or Gcards.....unless I still have a WM one somewhere....

Yeah!! Some new blood

[jenrose]

OK, I will kinda be in this month. I want to track my spending and I know you all will keep me honest. DS goes back to preschool this month and my work schedule is changing to accomodate that so I think this is the perfect time to get myself in check! I have no definite $$ figure goal, just to keep myself as low as possible.

[cody82414]

You know you want to join in the fun

[rtnrjk]

OK, my twin 21 yr old garbage guts will be in college so maybe I can keep my grocery costs down. I still do freezer meals for 1 of them because he is in an apartment.

I will try to be in this month for real.
Still going to try a $50 wk goal.