No-Spend Month: Reflections

August is over. With it, our purse strings are unlocked and we're "allowed" to spend money again. The month wasn't just an exercise in self control, though. Here's a recap:

Why did we do it?
The goal this month was threefold. The most immediate goal was to find funds to pay a one-time fee for my husband's online classes, which will get him a professional certification he's pursuing so that he may change careers. Starting these classes was a big step of faith, not knowing if there will even be jobs in the industry when he finishes them. He's got a job for now, and so do I, so we're able to wait it out, but we've started to move into the direction we're hoping to go, and that's exciting.

The second reason we tried this challenge was to find out how low we could go. What do we actually need to live? If we had no income, what funds would we need to meet our basic responsibilities? What does our lifestyle cost? You'd think this would be an easy number to come to, just counting up all our bills, but I've found it's hard to pinpoint what is a Need and a Want without actually living it out. Come to find out, in a normal month, we spend 50-100% more than the baseline Needs number we came up with. That was sobering.

The third reason was to make significant progress on our emergency fund, which had been languishing at around the 2-3 month mark while we had been trying to build it up to 6 months of expenses. As I already said, we used this month to more clearly define what "expenses" are.

What did we learn?
We learned that it is possible to eat at home for all our meals. We learned that there's tons of free things to do in the community, if we take the time to look. We learned that we keep a lot of food on hand. We learned that borrowing rather than buying or renting is a valid option, and friends and family are more than willing to offer. We learned that some people "get" what we were doing, and others totally didn't. We appreciated friends that would give us a no-spend option for hanging out, and found others always wanted to do something that involved spending money. We learned that hospitality is inexpensive and oh-so-valuable. We learned we can get by with no cash in our pocket for an entire month, and have self-control over using plastic.

What was the result?

• Almost $900 in classes and materials paid for
• $0 spend in our budget categories of Home Improvement, Miscellaneous, and Allowances
• $33 spent on groceries
• $10 spent at restaurants (due to forgotten-at-home lunches)
• $70 spent at birthday dinners at restaurants
• Had our lowest-spending month (since last November when I started tracking it), by almost $1,000
• Added $2,000 to our emergency fund since mid-July

What permanent changes will we make?
My husband has said he wants to stop eating out as much as we were before August. This means more cooking for me, but I agree, what we were doing before was excessive. I learned to use leftovers and plan for leftovers better this month than ever before, and I want to continue to learn to do that. I want to keep looking for free activities to do in the community, because not only is it easy on the pocketbook, it connects us more deeply to our neighbors. Because we're on the cash system, I think sometimes we spend money just because it's there, out of the bank and in our wallet. The cash system keeps us accountable to not spending more than our budgeted amount, but I think we can do better in underspending- maybe leaving some of the cash at home rather than carrying it all in our wallets.

We definitely agreed we'll be trying this experiment again someday- maybe as an annual event? It was motivating to jump-start our savings goals, and eye-opening to see some of our bad habits. Quitting cold-turkey wasn't easy, but it was necessary!
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Go check out others trying this challenge in August- Kacie and Frugal Confessions and Karen, who had a No-Spend summer!

No-Spend Month Day 31: The end has come

So, we made it. Tomorrow, No-Spend month is over, and September begins. Throughout this month, we had guests over, gave gifts, spent time (and money) celebrating birthdays, avoided shopping, and, early in the month, spent a little on non-necessities. I was proud to stick to a meal plan all month (for the most part) and eat at home.

Did we have a literal month of no spending? No- there were necessities and things deemed necessities that we spent a total of about $200 on. I'll have more of a recap in a couple days as we process what we learned this month and take stock of our single month of cutting back.

In the meantime, check out Millionaire Mommy Next Door's post today about Wants vs Needs. She uses a baseline of "needs" as absolutely bare-bone bills. For us, this month was our baseline. We talked about it this weekend and looked at our spending this month, and finally found a realistic number on which we could say, if we were living solely off our emergency fund because we were both out of work, what would we need to get by? We now know how much we spend in a month when we're "not spending" (plus a realistic grocery budget, because I couldn't cook out of our pantry & freezer indefinitely!) This helps us set a goal of a 6-month emergency fund, of which we already have 4 months in the bank. How exciting is that?

Having a clearer picture of What We Want vs What We Need has given me insight into how blessed we really are, and how Lifestyle and Culture and Expectations fill the gap between Needs and Wants such that I forget how much extra we do have.

How did your No-Spend or Low-Spend month go? What did you learn?

No-Spend Month Day 28: I Want

So, how has Not Buying this month affected my desires?

I wondered if I'd be able to ignore all the Wants that come up as a normal part of our culture (and human nature!). Would the temptation be worse, because everything in stores was Stuff I Can't Have? Would I be able to avoid the Wants by just avoiding the stores? The latter tended to be true, but here has been my experience:

• Advertising triggers Wants. This is what advertising aims to do- and it works. I didn't want the MADSEN Cargo Bikes until I saw the ad for it. Or the conflict-free diamonds. Or the chalkboard table. I'm not actually going to buy any of this stuff, promise. I don't watch TV, so that shields me from a great deal of advertising, but it's all around us. Magazines. Websites. Coupons. Sales flyers. It's amazing how much advertising I subject myself to on purpose, really.
• Wandering stores triggers Wants. Stores are designed to get visitors to buy, buy, buy. Displays are set up as such. Sale price tags are positioned to catch our eyes. Checkout lines contain easy-to-grab items. Stuff is placed in walking aisles so we have no choice but to look at it as we skirt the display. This month, I made sure to go to stores as rarely as possible and, when I did, go with a very specific list, and stick to it. This is so hard for me to do in grocery stores, especially.
• Being unprepared triggers Wants. If I didn't pack a water bottle, I'm more tempted to stop for a soda at a fast food restaurant. If I didn't plan a meal for the evening, I'm more likely to want to go out to eat. If I don't pack sufficiently for a trip, it makes me want to go and buy whatever it is I forgot. Just on Wednesday, I was up canning until way past my bedtime, with the most time spent (it seemed) on peeling the stupid tomatoes. I said over and over, I wish I had a food mill. I didn't go out and buy one, but I kept thinking, I HAVE to put this on my Christmas list. I Want. I Want.

What triggers your Wants? What do you do to avoid Buying Temptation?

No-Spend Month Day 26: The Cupboard is Bare

This no-grocery-shopping-for-a-month thing can really dwindle food supplies, go figure.

The grocery list is growing for September 1st, and dinner options are becoming narrower. I'm learning to use leftovers like I haven't before, and that's definitely a good thing. We've had a couple "All-Sides" dinners, consisting only of leftover side dishes. Monday, it was baked mac & cheese, baked beans, green beans, and corn on the cob. These meals make for a weird menu, but usually end up being vegetarian, which I know is better for us.

We've had to make a few runs to the store. We were out of Kleenex, and the worst of ragweed season is approaching. I was out of canning jars with a big box of overripe peaches (and even bigger box of tomatoes!) sitting in my kitchen. The tomatoes were free. The tomatoes were free; the peaches were $6 and netted 9 pints canned plus some in the freezer. I should add- our pantry is looking empty except for the canning I've been doing, which is supposed to last us all year. So far, 25 quarts and 12 pints of green beans, 12 pints and 1 quart of pickles, and 9 pints of peaches have been put up. Today, I'm, tackling the tomatoes.

We're already over our gas budget for the month, and my car needs its tank filled pretty badly. A lunch was left at home at the end of last week, as well as Monday, resulting in picking up fast food twice.

Money has been spent this month, but right now our no-spend budget is tracking to save $700 over what we normally spend. I go back and do the math again- can it be true? In just one month? Yep. Wow.

My husband and I will definitely be talking about which of these changes are permanent, once we run numbers at the end of the month and see where we saved money.

One more note: My husband was able to tighten the aforemetioned pipe and a crisis was averted, but we cleared out everything from below the sink just in case it wasn't a permanent fix.

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Two lunches out: $10
Kleenex: $2
Canning jars: $16

Previous total: $129.70
New total: $157.70

No Spend Month Day 22: Emergencies Happen.

Every time we get on a roll saving up an emergency fund, some Actual Emergency hits, and we deplete it back to where we were before. One of the goals of this month was to seriously cut back on spending so that we could make significant progress on our Emergency Fund goals, So far, so good.

'Emergencies' wouldn't be emergencies if we could see them coming. Replacing an aging appliance isn't an emergency if I knew it was getting old and likely to fail- I could have the foresight to save up for it. Replacing tires on a car due to wear isn't an emergency- I can check the tread and see that I need to start a Tire Fund. Replacing tires due to a nail causing a flat tire, or replacing a newer appliance that dies unexpectedly is an "emergency"- the distinction can be made.

Tonight, I was up past my bedtime finishing canning some green beans, when I drained the sink, and heard rushing water- not through the pipes, but under the sink. Awesome. Water was pouring out of the drain pipe, and I quickly yelled for my husband and plugged the sink again.

Will we need to call a plumber? Hopefully not, but freak things like this are what the Emergency Fund is for. There will probably be a trip to a hardware store tomorrow to find a solution to the leaking pipe, though, but I do want to use my sink again. Someday. Preferably, before the end of our No-Spend Month.
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Today's spending:
$7 at the grocery store for milk, 3 loaves of bread, and cereal.
$1.05 at JC Penney for a shirt and a necklace.

Previous total: $121.65
New total: $129.70

No-Spend Month Day 20: Birthday Dinner #2

Last night, we took my mom & dad out for a nice meal for my mom's birthday. After using a coupon, the total came to $45, quickly pushing our monthly spending over $100. After dinner, we ran to Costco to pick up a 40-lb bag of dog food for $22, since we're scraping the bottom of our last one, and the dog has to eat. He gets very whiny when he hasn't been fed. Even if he hasn't been fed for like an hour. But I digress.

So, does the fact that we spent more than we have in the last three weeks in just an evening mean that the experiment has failed? The experiment is about being faithful to the original goals, not numbers. Unlike many others who have set out on this No-Spend Month, I didn't set a Spending Goal of $X- I just said "No spending, except for necessities". I think we're sticking to that, as we understand it, without bending too many rules. As I said in my last post, gifts of experiences and relationships matter to us, so this night was worth it.

If you're playing along at home, this means that we've spent $70 of the $121 we've spent this month, almost 60%, on "gifts" for friends or family (and slightly more if you take into account the pennies I've spent at CVS for stuff I gave away).

My friend the Queen of Free has a great post today about making small changes in your life and spending for a big result over time. This month has been a big change for us that has ended up being less disruptive than I thought it would be. Will we continue in a No-Spend mindset? My pantry and freezer are looking thin, so we're going to have to go grocery shopping at some point. There are some house projects that will need to be completed with a trip to the hardware store. For the next week or so, though, until September 1st, we're committed to trying to keep this up, and learning from the process.

How's your month going?

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Previous Total: $54.65
New Total: $121.65

No-Spend Month Day 19: Clearing out

A strange side effect from not spending this month has been the desire to simplify in other areas. I've tried to straighten up the office. I went through my clothes and have a pile to drop off at Goodwill. The clean laundry didn't sit unfolded in the baskets as long as it would in a normal week. I'm keeping the kitchen cleaner. I'm actually wanting to weed in the garden.

All of these things may not seem like "simplifying" at first glance, but the desire to have my surroundings uncluttered is stemming from not doing the opposite- shopping, accumulating, buying.

Last weekend, on a whim, I threw together a care package for my brother-in-law whose headed back to college soon. I picked up a few free things at CVS, then proceeded to check around the house, seeing if we had anything he could use at college.

Popcorn.
Mac & cheese.
Candy bars.
Sticky notes.
Pens.
Scotch tape.
Medicines.
A first aid kit.

All unopened, new in the packaging.

While it was really cool I was able to get a gift together by just looking for stuff around the house, it occurred to me later- how much is enough? When does stockpiling become hoarding? How much extra stuff do I really need to store, "just in case"? Also, how much room would I find in my house if I got rid of stuff I may not ever use?

This No-Spend Month experiment really makes you think.

Another note: Though this care package was a gift I could get from gathering stuff from around the house, I don't want to imply gifts are worth skimping on. Gifts, especially the gift of Experiences and Time, are worth every penny for important relationships in your life. That's why we went to a birthday dinner with friends earlier this month, and that's why we're taking my mom out for her birthday tonight. Relationships matter, even with a silly experiment going on.

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Spent $0.13 at CVS in tax on Sunday.
Also, spent $0.35 at the office on snacks, because I under-packed my lunch yesterday.

Previous Total: $54.17
New Total: $54.65

No-Spend Month Day 17: Costco Conversation

We had to get milk and block cheese for lunches. Costco (by far!) has the best deal on good cheese, and milk was cheaper than elsewhere, so we went there. At the checkout:

Cashier: "Just these two items?"
Me: "Yep"
Cashier: "Wow, you're a strong person. Most people can't get out of here with so little- especially women!"
Me: It was a quick trip.
Cashier: I guess!

This short conversation highlighted the pitfalls of shopping often and shopping leisurely. Because I had in my mind that were were not spending money this month, and we came in with a very specific list. It was hard not to slow down and look at all the snacks and packages of other food it'd be nice to have. I slowed down a couple times to grab a few samples (Hummus! Chicken nuggets! Kashi granola bars!) but tried my best to stay focused and on-task. A downside of Costco is the fact that an impulse buy will cost you $10 or more, while an impulse buy at a typical grocery store will be $5 or less. Having a list- and sticking to it- is even more important at a warehouse store.

See my warehouse store shopping series part 1, part 2 and part 3

Amazingly, we got out of Costco for $8.77
Add to that a $7 lunch on Friday
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Previous total: $38.40
New Total: $54.17

No-Spend Month Day 14: Payday Routine

Today our paychecks come in.

When we get our paychecks, they direct-deposit into our checking account, and my husband does his budgeting magic. He transfers some money for non-monthly bills (like car insurance and trash) and accumulating budget categories (like Dog Fund and Gift Fund) to an online checking account for that purpose, leaves money in the brick-and-mortar checking account for monthly budget categories (mortgage, gas, food, electric, etc.), and transfers the rest to a separate Emergency Fund online savings account.

Commercial Break: All our savings accounts are with ING, and we're beyond delighted with them. I've got referral links- which can only each be used once, so email me at itsjustchange-at-gmail to get a link, which will get you $25 in your account and $10 for me. In addition, it will get you anywhere-access to your accounts, a pretty good interest rate, and access to ATMs all over the country. Seriously, I'm a big fan. (I'll write post full of gushing later)

And we're back.

In a normal month, at the end of the pay period, after paying all applicable bills and buying gas and getting cash out for our cash budget categories, our checking account is pretty low. If we spend all our cash and need to use our check card for anything, it's dangerously low. This low balance is buy design- if we left more money than we need in the account, it has the potential to get spent. With just a small buffer beyond our budgeted categories, we can't easily spend beyond our budget. Our credit card and online accounts are accessible, sure, but we have to consciously choose to use them, which makes us pause and think before we do- is this over-budget spending worth it?

All that said, we've just completed the first no-spend pay period, and I'm happy to say our checking account had barely been touched (except for bills). It's nice not having to watch the balance carefully the last two or three days before a paycheck comes in.

The month is almost halfway over!

Today's failure: We BOTH forgot our lunches at home because we had a disrupted morning routine. I'll have a bagel here at the office for lunch, and look forward to dinner. My husband will probably go out for an inexpensive lunch. The lunches that are already conveniently packed and in the fridge will turn into a picnic lunch downtown tomorrow night. A night on the town for nothing? I'll take that!

No-Spend Month Day 11: Dinners with Friends

Here's the story of two dinners, two great sets of friends, and two different effects on our pocketbook.

Saturday, a friend that lives about an hour away was going to be in the neighborhood, so I invited her family over for dinner. I'm big on hospitality- the act of opening my home, inviting another into my life to see a little of my world, hopefully making them feel at ease and comfortable and loved- this all matters very much to me. Spur-of-the-moment hospitality is a bit more of a challenge, but I try to always be ready for anyone who might stop by, or for any chance to open my home. This month, because I'm sticking close to a meal plan, what I serve to guests is limited to what's in the pantry, fridge, and freezer.

I was trying to come up with what to serve my friend Saturday, and my husband suggested chicken alfredo, mostly because it's one of his favorite meals. I knew that would be quick and easy, and I knew I had the sauce ingredients on hand, so I was set. Until I actually started cooking it. Yes, I had the sauce ingredients on hand, but I didn't have as much fresh fettuccine in the freezer as I thought- and I didn't have a full box of fettuccine in my pantry, either. The solution? Cook fresh pasta and dried pasta together for the grown-ups, and throw some egg noodles on the side for the kids. The kids would probably want the noodles plain, anyway. I baked up some rosemary bread, and made a vegetable tray with carrots, broccoli, and cucumbers from the garden, plus some grape tomatoes I picked up free at the grocery store. I heated up leftover roasted chicken to top the pasta. Dinner is served!

Our guests didn't seem to mind that the noodles didn't all match, or that the chicken was actually leftovers, or that fresh vegetables were a weird side with pasta, or that I had dinner ready a bit before they got to our house, so things weren't piping hot. I remind myself that the point of Hospitality is to have a welcoming home, and that was accomplished. Thankfully, I also had grace-filled guests!

Fast forward from Saturday to Monday. I get a call Monday morning asking if we'd like to join our friend to celebrate her birthday at a local restaurant. We chewed on this decision. We really like the restaurant. But it's our No-Spend month! But we haven't hung out with these friends in a while, and we've been meaning to, and a birthday does only come once a year... We caved, and went to dinner. And had a fabulous time. And ordered water to save some money. All in all, we ended up spending $25 for a very similar meal to what we had Saturday for "free"- rosemary bread, fresh vegetables, chicken alfredo.

Moral of the story? Dinner at home is always cheaper. Friends can visit anywhere. Dinner doesn't have to be perfect. Small sacrifices (because, although $25 is a lot of money for this month, it's small on the scale of things) made to strengthen relationships are worth it.

I sometimes selfishly host dinners rather than go out with friends for the above reason- I know that I can spend about $6 on ingredients for a good-sized group, or I can spend 4 times that on dinner for just my husband & I. Hospitality is (most of the time) less expensive than getting together elsewhere, with the added perk of the intimacy of the home rather than a public place. Hospitality matters- even during a No-Spend Month.
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Previous Total: $13.40
New Total: $38.40

No-Spend Month, Day 10: Not a No-Spend weekend

Last weekend, I celebrated our first No Spend Weekend, where we didn't spend a penny unnecessarily. This weekend, we did spend a few pennies (Dollars, even!):

• 39 cents in tax at CVS. I picked up one thing free, and we had to pick up some medicine. The balance was paid with ECBs, but the tax was out of pocket. This burned through about 8 ECBs that I didn't get back.
• $2.61 at Dairy Queen. When we started this challenge, I said our weakness is occasionally going out for ice cream... well, Saturday night, we wanted to reconnect after a busy day, and were out running errands, on the way to visit family, and we stopped and shared a Blizzard on our way. This explicitly broke a rule, but, on the upside, Blizzards were $1 off, and the Chocolate Extreme was really good... but that's no excuse.
• $2.00 at Kroger. I was picking up some free (really, actually free) things, and my husband said we were out of soda. While I don't put this in the "necessity" category, he does, so we picked up a 12-pack.

Previous total: $8.40

New total: $13.40

No-Spend Month Day 9: What is "free"?

The definition of free, in the context of cost, is "complimentary: costing nothing; exempt [from paying]: grant relief or an exemption from a rule or requirement to [pay]"

What I'm learning is, "Buy one, get one free" isn't actually free. I have to spend money- buy one- to get the deal. Technically, it's "50% off when you buy 2," but that phrase doesn't go over as well with ad viewers. "Free after mail-in rebate" isn't actually free, either- I have to pay for the item, and my money will be refunded later. While I see lots of great deals out there this month- as I always do, reading fantastic posts by bloggers that keep us lazy deal-hunters informed- I can't chase any of them. Unless they're actually free.

So what have I found that's Actually Free?

• Tickets to the US Senior Open from my company
• Tickets to see Sandi Patty and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra this coming Tuesday, won from @IndyStateFair
• Dryer balls won from Inexpensively
• Coupons for free items like Tropicana orange juice and candy and Kroger tomatoes
• Community events
• Walks in the neighborhood, playing board games at home, re-watching old movies
• Food from my garden

When I get anxious or bored at home, I often want to go out just to get out, to do something. Often this means wandering around a Goodwill or bookstore or the mall. The vast majority of the time I won't buy anything, but the fact that my entertainment circulates around retail outlets is somewhat disconcerting. This month, I'm enjoying finding Actual Free things to do- and finding them in abundance!

No-Spend Month Day 7: Lunch

As I said before, we're pretty good at budgeting, until something throws us off our schedule.

Every morning, I faithfully get up earlier than I actually need to, and make two lunches- one for me, one for my husband. Mine gets toted along with me to work; my husband's gets placed in the fridge for him to grab on his way out the door about an hour later. Yesterday, he ran out the door without his lunch.

To be fair, this isn't an uncommon occurrence. During months when we're not trying to spend no money (like that double-negative? Yeah, me too.), this will happen about once every week and a half. On those days, he'll go out to eat with his coworkers, and eat the lunch I made the next day. No big deal. This time, he felt really bad, because it WAS a big deal to him, because we were trying so hard not spend any extra money this month. I'm trying to be full of grace about this experiment, so I told him to go ahead and go out to lunch so he'd get to eat lunch, and to order water instead of soda so he wouldn't feel as bad :)

Also, as I stated in my "rules"- I'll go shopping for grocery staples when we run out during the month. Well, Aldi is having a fabulous sale on milk ($1 per gallon!) so I ran there and got two gallons, which will last us more than a couple weeks.

Total spending so far:
Lunch: $6
Milk: $1.98
Previous total: $0.42
New total: $8.40

I should add, we've also been spending money to ship items we've sold on eBay, but that money is coming from the sale of the items, not out of the regular budget.

No-Spend Month Day 5: When Plans Go Awry

Around my house, we're pretty good at budgeting. We set out and decide how much we're going to spend on various categories, and usually approximately "hit the mark". The days we get thrown off our budgeting game, though, are the times things don't go as planned.

One month, a couple years ago, we had a death in the family that was going to require unexpected travel, and cancelling other trip plans we had made for that same weekend. Due to the hurried nature of the trip, we didn't get our cash for our envelopes out of the bank, saying instead we'd just use ATM cards this month. At the end of the month, we were shocked at how much we spent. Yes, there was a trip involved, which means eating out more, and getting back from a trip can always be hectic and normality can take a few days to return, but this was a whole-month problem. Our schedule had been disrupted, our typically-well-followed plans were askewed, and we compensated by spending more.

On a typical work day, I'm home by 4 or 4:30- a full hour or hour-and-a-half before my husband, with plenty of time to get dinner ready. On the few days that I work late and don't get home before him, we often look around the kitchen, see that dinner isn't ready, and go out to eat instead. Last night was one of those days. I was at the office until 6, and my husband had already gotten home. If it were a typical month, he'd let the dog out, feed the dog, and come pick me up for a quick dinner out. Last night was different. There was a whole chicken roasting in the crockpot, and he heated up some green beans, then brought dinner to me at the office, where we had a strangely-romantic dinner in the breakroom.

This is what No-Spend Month is doing for us- making us "think different". When our plans get thrown off, the default answer is to spend money to compensate. With a little creativity, we don't have to.

No-Spend Month: Day 3

It's Monday morning, and I'm proud to say we just completed our first no-spend weekend.

A typical weekend for us would be this: Get up Saturday morning, go out to run errands (BUY STUFF), pick up lunch while we're out, get some things done around the house, go to church at 4:30, and out to dinner afterwards. Sundays, we'll work on house projects (which involves a trip to the hardware store), go to Costco or go grocery shopping, often eating lunch out. By the evening, we're usually settled in at home and have a light dinner, but the damage to our checking account has been done.

So how was this weekend different? We didn't go to run errands Saturday morning. Instead, we stayed home, and ate a brunch at about 9:30. We both worked on yard projects before it got hot- my husband mowed while I worked in the garden. We sold a computer on craigslist, so he went to meet the buyer for that while I worked on canning some of the green beans I harvested. I made sure we ate a late lunch/really early dinner before we went to church around 4 so we wouldn't be hungry and wanting to pick something up afterwards. When we got home, we curled up with some popcorn & watched a movie.

Sunday was booked solid with free events, so it wasn't as hard to avoid spending money. After stopping by CVS to pick up some free deals (Confession: I spent 42 cents in tax on otherwise free items) I had free tickets to the US Senior Open happening nearby, and we checked that out in the morning. When we got home, we had a snack to hold us over, and headed to a family reunion, where we were for the rest of the day. We did have to buy a tank of gas on the way home (Gas is considered a "necessity" according to our rules).

Could we do this no-spend weekend every weekend? Perhaps. I suppose we'll try for the next month and see how it goes!

Total spending for August: 42 cents

No Spend Month: Before I even begin...

One of the goals of my No-Spend month is to see how much money I can "find" in our budget. The month hasn't even started yet, and unusual "found money" has popped up all over!

• I got paid for my last 3 months of overtime work
• My raise kicked in on the paycheck at the end of July
• Our mortgage payment went down due to lower property taxes
• My husband started selling parts from 3 extra computers we have sitting around on eBay and craigslist

Without even trying, one of the goals- to save up for classes that my husband needs to take- has been achieved. Because we've already reached the goal, I wonder what the purpose of the month ahead of us is. We're still going to give it a try and see what we end up with, because I know the "purging" will be good for us. 

The next goal: Finish up a 3-month emergency fund.

The No-Spend Experiment: Coming Soon!

It all starts on Saturday. August first through the thirty-first. Thirty-one days of nothing.


Amy's done it.
So has Kim. And Mary. And Crunchy Chicken. And Molly. And all sorts of other people.
MSN Money talked about it. So did Bankrate.com and Reader's Digest.

But can WE do it?

What's the project? Not spending money for a month. Sounds straightforward enough. Everyone makes rules that work for them. Here are mine.

Regular bills will still get paid. We're not going to cancel any phone or internet service for just a month. Bills include: Electric, Mortgage, Cell phone, Internet. I think that's it.

"Staples" and necessities can still be bought. If I run out of milk or flour or sugar or toothpaste, I'll go to the store and get more. Trying to work around not having a staple on hand is more difficult than it's worth. I want to succeed. I just realized I'll probably need to buy dog food before the month is put. That falls under the 'Necessity' category. Gas is also a necessity- we won't be carpooling to work, so we'll probably spend our normal amount in that category.

Grocery spending will be kept at an absolute minimum. I made a meal list for the whole month, and took stock of what I'd need to make all those meals. I already had most of the ingredients on hand, but spent $40 at Aldi and $10 at Meijer to round out the list last weekend. Theoretically, I'm set for the month, but I know something will come up.

Other than necessities, no spending. House projects that require supplies will be put on hold. No new clothes purchases, or new tools, or gadgets. No eating out! Not even for ice cream runs! Hardest for me, I'm going to set aside deal-hunting and couponing for a month. If I can get something free, I'll do it, sure (and I do have $13 in ECBs that will need to be used!) but I won't go out & buy something (with money) just because it's on sale. Not in August.

So can we do this? I have no idea. I think it will be interesting to see what the minimum amount of money we can live on is, with our current responsibilities (the house, dog, commuting to jobs, etc). I think it will be eye-opening to go cold-turkey from some of our current habits- perusing Goodwills for impulse buys, eating out 2-3 times a week, running to the store to pick up what we need, almost-weekly house projects. I think finding free things to do around town will be fun! My friend the Queen of Free will surely be a help in this! I'll try to post every couple days on the new challenges and progress.

I think the project will also show us how blessed we are- how much room there actually is in our budget, how much more we could, or should, be giving to others. With the project planned, before I've even started, I've already felt blessed-like-crazy.