screwed the pooch!

Yup, that pretty much sums up how we did on our No Spend Month. We suck. Instead of spending only $250 on all our non regular bill stuff (groceries, gas, pet food, thrift store shopping, etc) we spent closer to $400. Yes, you heard me right.. We went over by about $150. Yikes!

How did this happen? We were doing SO GOOD...

I would say it was a combination of me being sick, which means I get a kind of depressed + starting to feel a little deprived + our consumer buying addiction + very little self control. Yeah, lethal combination. We just went buying/spending crazy the last week. It was weird, like aliens took over our minds.

I was pretty mad at us for a good week, had a few moments of yelling at myself and being mad at Don, because, really, it was all his fault, you know?

Well, I can say (because I always have to see the good side of things) that we did learn ALOT this month. It was not a total loss...

What we got out of doing this:

* We got to see, really see, how we are about money and what we want/need to do to change things.

* I learned how to grocery shop on a tighter budget and still eat good food. Last week when it was obvious we had screwed the pooch, I still only spent $50 at the grocery store.

* We had some pretty awesome conversations about money that we normally do not ever have. This has created some new goals and commitments that were going to happen "some day" but we are now working on now.

* I had a new insight about our budget. I relate to our budget as a hope or wish and don't ever really stick to it. I just spend money on whatever I feel like. So, even though I do a budget every month, and I thought I was following it, I wasn't. I am full of it.

* This new insight has led to us committing to only spend cash and use the envelope system. More on that in a minute.

* Don has a better appreciation for where our money goes, where it should go and where we want it to go. This is a good thing.

* We did discover that we can live on less and though we may not love it, we can do it and be fine.

So, all in all, I am really glad we did this. I think we learned some good things about ourselves and for sure we got ourselves re-oriented and pointed in the right direction toward fulfilling our dreams.

This month, we are taking on a new challenge! To only spend cash and use the envelope system. I have tried this before, but what ended up happening is we would "steal" money from other envelopes to buy things or just use our debit card.

Uh, yeah, not really the way the envelope system is suppose to work. The idea is that you have an envelope for all the categories you need to spend money on. Then you put a budgeted amount of cash in each envelope and when the money is gone, it is gone. Kinda like when we were kids and when we had money, we would spend it on stuff, but when we didn't, we didn't. Sounds simple enough right?

Well, when I have tried this before, when I ran out of money, I would just whip out the debit card and buy stuff anyway. That meant spending money that should be going into savings, resulting in no savings.

So, here is how we are doing the challenge this month.

Each week when Don gets paid, he will deposit his paycheck and keep a certain amount of cash that will go into our envelopes.

What goes in the bank stays in the bank for rent, bills, etc. I have taken our debit cards away. They are tucked into a sealed envelope that we are not allowed to open for the entire month.

I made some cute little envelopes for us to use. I needed something pretty that won't get torn up and mangled. So I whipped these up last week. Pretty basic and seriously whipped up - don't look at them too close! But they are a pretty place for us to put our money and they will serve as a reminder that our money is important.

The categories we have are: groceries, out and about, thrifting, household needs, and pet supplies. I need to make another one for gas. I was going to have us just use the debit card for filling up the tank, but I think that we really do need to put the debit cards away for the whole month and not use them at all. So we will have to go pay for gas the old fashioned way, no paying at the pump for us! (note to self: get gas when the kids are awake or when we are both in the car)

So there you have it - our new game. Spend only what we have budgeted, using a cash based system.

no spend month check in

Well, I really did mean to update last Thursday, but we went camping and well, summer time just means busy time. I have lots of pictures from camping and lots of other fun stuff to share about, but for now, I just wanted to let you all know how we are doing with our no spend month.

Here are the Grand Totals up until today:

Groceries: $95.35
Gas: $30.17
Bus: $1.75
Ice Cream: $8
Fishing Trip: $10
Camping: $32.96
Eating Out: $6.50

Amount Spent So Far: $184.73

Now, first off, I have to confess that Don got a little tip money and we bought some coffee and other stuff with that. I really should count that in our grand totals, but I am not going to. I am cheating a little, I know.

It is pretty crazy actually to see IN BRIGHT LIGHTS our whole relationship to money. We get a little extra, we spend it. That is how we roll. Not very powerful or effective when we are wanting to save money to fulfill our dreams. And wow, we are so justified about it all.. I'm telling you, this is turning out to be such an incredible experience. Don and I are really learning a lot, and (I think) starting to establish some new habits.

Going camping really threw us off, however. Especially because we went for a little drive on Sunday and a coffee here, an ice cream there, it really adds up. I think we spent about $30 that was "extra" tip money on things that we for sure did not need, but wanted.

In writing this, I am going to go ahead and add that $30 into our grand total so we can see just exactly where we went over (which we for sure will with that in the mix).

So, here is our real spending:

Groceries: $95.35
Gas: $30.17
Bus: $1.75
Ice Cream: $8
Fishing Trip: $10
Camping: $32.96
Eating Out: $36.50

Amount Spent So Far: $214.73

The real challenge now would be to only spend $35 for the rest of the month. Very unrealistic given we need gas in the cars and groceries for the next 2 weeks, but I am going to try and get as close as I can.

That feels better. I am such a cheater all the time! Trying to make things look better than they are. But this whole experiment is to cause a shift in how we do things and "cheating" is how come we don't own a house or go on great vacations.

Sorry this post is so ramble-y. I think there is really a whole can of worms opening up here right before your very eyes. Don and I spent a good chunk of our mountain drive talking about this whole thing.. what we want, how our spending doesn't help us to get there, what we need to do to change... again, I am so happy we took on this challenge.. I think it is working, the pot is being stirred and new things are brewing!

Don even said yesterday, "let's cancel the cable" WHAT?!! Did my tv watching hubby really say that? We have some stuff we really want to do with our family and our lives and we DO need to live a little more frugally and give some things up in order to get there.

So here we are confronting what it will take to get from Point A to Point B and making some small changes along the way. I feel like the little engine that could...

"I think I can, I think I can..."

how we are doing

We completed our first week of our No Spend Month. For the most part, I think we are doing great!

Here is where our money has gone so far this month...

Groceries: $37.54
Gas: $20.00
Gas: $5
Bus: $1.75
Ice Cream: $8

Amount Spent So Far: $72.29

Yes, I did spend $8 on ice cream yesterday!

I think the heat got to my brain a bit.. I HAD to have ice cream and the only place I knew of to go while we were downtown was super expensive. Yes, I could have just gotten the kids ice cream and it would have been cheaper, but well.. I am an ice creamoholic and there was NO WAY I could have sat there and watched them eat some creamy yumminess without me. So I splurged. And, OUCH! $8?? I mean really? That was not even for anything fancy.. just plain old ice cream...crazy!

Lesson learned.

Everywhere else, we are doing great! We had a week of delicious homemade food. I even made a pie!


It is really interesting to watch and notice how consumer driven we are. Every day I think of something we "need" and tell myself that when we are done with our no spend month, I am going to go buy x, y, z. Most things we don't even really "need" but I tell myself that anyway. And I really feel like I have to have whatever it is to be able to function properly in life.

Because we are taking a break from just buying whatever we think we need, it has been very interesting watching my reactions to not buying stuff and how deprived it can make me feel. I am totally consumer driven! And though he has not said so, I think Don is HATING this experiment. He just wants to go buy stuff, I can tell.

Very interesting indeed. I really didn't think I was this wired up to buy things, but I am. I admit it. I want to go shopping! I really do...

So, I would say that this challenge is doing exactly what I wanted it to do. CHALLENGING us.

Can't wait to see what else evolves from this over the month.

no spend month

Rachel, who has a great blog called Small Notebook has created a challenge. The No Spend Month. For the past few years she and her family have given themselves only $250 for the month of July to use for food, gas and other incidentals. Of course things like rent and car payments don't count.

Well, Don and I are totally taking this on with her! During his time of being laid off, we really tapped ourselves out financially and got a bit behind on some of our bills. He has been back to work for a few months now and we still have not quite gotten it together.

We just keep spending money, eating out, etc. like there is money in the bank. And there is not. We have been talking for the past week or so about what it would take for us to knock it off and get serious about our money. Like grown up serious. We have a lot of dreams and things we want to do, but none of all that fun stuff is going to happen if we keep living paycheck to paycheck. So we have been confronting our finances and knowing that we need SOMETHING to kick us in the ass.

Well, yesterday morning after one of these big talks, I opened up my blog reader and there was a post from Rachel about her No Spend Month. She's been writing about it and alluding to it for awhile now and I've read those posts thinking, "Hmm, good idea."

Yesterday however, the bell went off and I said YES! This is what we need! A FUN game to play (with someone else) that will actually take some creativity and motivation to win. So we are on board! July is no spend month for us.

I am giving us $250 to use for food, gas, bunny stuff, and any thing else we need that is not a regular bill. This is truly going to take a paradigm shift in our household. Right now, I easily spend $100 or so each week in groceries alone. Not to mention coffee out, ice cream, art supplies, gas for the cars, etc. I am not even really sure how we are going to do it, but we are going to do it.

I will update here once per week and let you know how we are doing. Anyone want to play along?