One of the biggest reasons for creating MommyLuvs2save was to create a community of moms and dads who want to help their family save money when buying essentials in order to free up money for debt repayment. My own family has paid off over $111,500 in consumer debt including credit cards, student loan debt and 2 vehicles. I am a teacher at heart. I want to use the skills that I have learned to help YOU ditch debt. I want to encourage each of you in your efforts so that one day you can feel the freedom of being debt free. I’m not quite there yet either (we still have a mortgage) so I need encouragement as well 
It can be very difficult to pay down debt. There are many temptations to spend money. We live in a culture that encourages debt and spending. In addition, expenses come up and there never seems to be any extra money for paying down debt. I want to urge each of you to participate in a challenge. Just leave a comment about one positive step you’ve taken for your family each day. Did you eat in instead of going out? Did you save money at the grocery store? Did you pay extra on your credit card? Leave a comment below and we will cheer one another on every day and every step of the way.
The challenge is to leave a comment about what YOU have done to work on getting debt free each day. One winner will be chosen to win a $50 Amazon gift card at the end of each month. To participate in the challenge you must comment on at least 10 posts during the month.
* I will also be sharing my progress from the day prior.
My Progress: Yesterday was a NO spend day. I made breakfast and lunch at home and we went to my sister’s house for dinner. Before dinner the girls practiced their bike riding skills with their cousins. We drove to an unused parking lot to practice. We spent about 40 minutes practicing and unfortunately it didn’t end well. Olivia fell pretty hard. She had pads and a helmet on, but still. She had a loose tooth that fell out and bled all over so she was screaming. Kayla was crying because Olivia was bleeding. I think one or more of the cousins was crying. Basically, it was a hot mess. Oh well, we tried. They were all laughing within 20 minutes or so and the tooth was very wiggly to start so it had to come out anyway. Alls well that ends well I guess They still don’t know how to ride their bikes though 
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I did buy some Rollerskates for them for their upcoming 6th birthday using a credit on Amazon. Hopefully it will be easier to teach them to rollerskate (probably not). I earned some Swagbucks after the girls fell into bed. I also completed a bunch of surveys and entered some sweepstakes (thanks for the inspiration Shelley). I organized some drugstore deals for today and bought a few newspapers. My new coupons got organized and put in my filing cabinet. It was a good family day for the most part ha ha !
What did you do? Leave a comment We’d love to hear about it You could make 2013 your year. Who will the January winner be ? We’ll see…
Well, yesterday was a no spend day, but my daughter accidentally broke my husband’s ipod touch, so we did lose an expensive item. Oh well, it happens to all of us though. I’m thankful this morning it’s already 40 degrees outside and not 10 or less like it usually is when I drop my son off at Kindergarten.
Yesterday our granddaughter treat my hubby and I to breakfast!! She is so delightful. Spent no money, cooked and ate all meals at home, clipped coupons and scanned the ads. I’ll make up my grocery list today.
Thinking about some comments that are being made; “only spent XX amount of $$”,or “bought a thingie for xx amount of $$, but it’s only xx amount of $$. ” Then the comment would be “other than that a no spend day>” If you spent any money it was not a not a no spend day!! Are you taking money from a allocated “stash” to pay for your had-to-buy item, or are you taking money from anywhere there is extra? If you haven’t allocated money for clothing sales, stocking up, and any extras then you do not have money to spend. You will be taking it from somewhere you shouldn’t saying “I’ll take it out of something on the budget next pay and put it back” Delusion” you’ll need something else next pay. Cycle will continue until you set up a budget covering everything and stick with it.
I did run out in the morning to grab a few things to last us until the end of the week and still have to pick up one more item today. My Harris Teeter has their rotissire chickens for only $3.97 so I will grab one for dinner one night. My mom had a jewelry party yesterday at my house so she made lots of goodies. It was nice to snack and hang out with everyone and all the jewelry and hair accessories all are only $5 each so that is a killer deal and since my daughter and I share jewelry it makes it even better.
Took a survey, clipped coupons, paid $300 to cc
Went to church, warmed my heart to see the kids tithing with their allowance money. Wow, they really do immulate your actions.
Made soup and cornbread for dinner. Took 2 of the kiddos out to lunch with a restaurant.com certificate…have enough leftovers for my lunch today.
Prayed for health and prosperity for the gals on this site.
I love that your kids tithe on their allowance. You are teaching them well!
not one penny spent yesterday!!!!!!!! not gas, food, kids, nothing!!!!!!!! selling some things on ebay and listed a few more. All meals where made by my mama since we were there for church. Hubs is off today so I hope it’s a no spend day>>>>>>>>>>
Had a great run to Walgreesn, some great deals this week. Saved a bunch with coupons on the items we needdd. My almost 5 year old daughter went with me and she didn;t ask for a thing. I am hoping that she is finally understanding that we don’t buy toys every time we go to the store. I also clipped coupons and began my grocery list for Safeway. We will make it until Wendesday. Yeah. The bummer news is the hot water heater pilot light went out again. I am going to call NW Natural and see if they can fix it. Hoping they can, that is the free route, rather than having to pay for a contractor or worse a new hot water heater. Say a prayer it works out.
Had to get gas in my car and bought a few things at Walmart for my son’s upcoming birthday party. So, $43 for gas and $18 at Walmart. That’s it for money spent yesterday, and it was in the budget!
Got my gift card from Mypoints in the mail yesterday. Saved up for a $50 Groupon card
Spent no money yesterday.
A neighbor works one week on and one week off at a construction camp. He has several pigs that he raises for food and butfhers himself. His roommate left him and he asked me if we would be willing to feed the pigs the week he is gone. The payoff would be a free quarter of a pig when he slaughters them in June. Since we don’t pay for feed and didn’t pay for the piggies, this sounds like a really good deal for us so I said yes. One more thing grogery item I won’t have to buy this summer. (He said to expect about 200 pounds of a combination of pork roasts, pork chops and ground pork!!)
Great deal!!
Yesterday I took one boy out to shop—divide & conquer!! He also got to practice shopping & using coupons. We hit the Dollar Tree x2, Walgreens, CVS, Petsmart & Starbucks. We got 2 cans of sweet potatoes, 2 olives, 2 lipton teas, bil jak wet dog food, aqua fresh extreme toothpaste, 6 Planters nutritious peanut butters & Clear scalp hair conditioner for drum roll…$.26. We only started with 2 $1.50 RR to Walgreens & ended with 2 $1 RR. I also got my free Starbucks Blonde Vanilla coffee.
For sweepstakes 2 of my favorite sites that are easy to navigate are:
sweetiessweeps.com & sweepstakestoday.com. I would start easy doing some instant wins & a few dailies. Both sites are free & you can save your favorites to come back to every day. It makes for fast entering once you have them. Entering any sweepstakes should be free & stay away from things that pop up. These sites won’t have that. There is a ton of info to get you started too. I enter many, many each day but I wouldn’t consider myself extreme–yet.
Wow, that’s fantastic!
Yesterday I was able to spend no money at all!! I never left my house and the best part I was finally able to get all of my Christmas decorations all put away and got some of my garage cleaned!! It was so nice and warm here yesterday that the kids didn’t want to come in the house so by bed time everyone just crashed!
Worked a 10 hour shift. Got all my coupons cut and filed. Earned a $3 Amazon credit from my CheckPoints app. Wrote 5 reviews for View Points. Very easy to do and they always pay out. Earned 504 swagbucks (shop and earn from Christmas credited), stopped by Walgreens for a few of their deals for the week. Hubby went to church and made our tithe. Continue to pray for everyone on the prayer chain and all the ML2S readers.
Yesterday was a no spend day. I went to the gym which by the time DH got home I really didn’t want to but I did it anyway and I talked us both out of eating out. We just don’t have the $ to spend on eating out like we used to. Plus its better for our waistlines.
Today we spent some $ on lunch meat for DH for work to help offset the $ he spends getting food out. It was an extra expense but I think its worth it because of the savings. I also went to Dollar tree with my son and got a couple things with coupons for .50 a piece. We are on our own for dinner again tomorrow and will be at MIL’s so I will probably take some ground turkey and make tacos even though we had them yesterday. C likes them a lot and they’re easy.