This month over at The MotherLoad they are having a No Spend month for February. I decided to join in for the fun of it. To be honest when I hear "No Spend" I think "no spending!" Period. But as that is fairly impossible in our day in age with electric bills, insurance, etc. All of the No Spend challenges are usually concerning spending less and majorly restricting your spending. Not spending money on a bunch of wants, only taking care of the needs.Here is my goal for this month:
I will only spend $150. (This is just what I will be spending, not Ken as this sort of challenge is not really his style.) With this money I will take care of our groceries, household expenses (like toilet paper, etc.), gas for the van and anything else we might need. (There will be no clothes buying or things like that.) It should be rather fun! In December I did this same challenge except had the goal of only $100 spent. I ran into some troubles but overall it went pretty well.
Here are some reasons I like a challenge like this and think it can help in our goal to live frugally:
- It makes saving fun! I like a challenge or a game and setting a goal for our spending makes all of the budgeting and shopping turn into one big game.
- I learn to think outside of the box. It is quite possible that during this "game" I will learn some new frugal method that I really like and can keep using. Here are some of the things I learned in December.
- I can have more to share with others and I can also learn how to relate to others better that don't have as much. Because I was wanting to be able to support our church and missionaries better I proposed to Ken that all I saved on our food budget (our alloted budget is $325 a month) we would give away. He was agreeable and we did that last year and I am looking forward to doing that again this year.
Have you ever taken a no spend challenge? I would love to hear about your experiences and the things you learned!!I will plan on posting regularly about how our lack of spending is going as well as the fun things we can do without spending money.
On another note be sure not to miss a Notecard Giveaway here on my blog until this evening. I will be drawing a name tonight.
For more frugal tips visit Biblical Womanhood.
I do better with a no spend challenge than what my hubby does. :D BUT I haven't done one in a while because I just can't get over my "working" all the deals that I see that I *know* my family would use.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of last year I went really overboard at trying to get the "drugstore game" down that I overspent and got things that I didn't use or need. So in order to get my spending under control again , I did myself and my family a favor and worked out of my pantry and freezer without going to the store for almost three full weeks! Also during that time, all the items that I knew we wouldn't use I put in a bag and handed over to our church food pantry/closet. After that time, I took the approach of no more drugstores and only going to the grocery stores to get what I needed and doing some moderate restocking of the pantry rather than going overboard again!
I hope that you achieve your goal for this month! :)
Thanks for sharing! :)