Frugal Friday #2: Mindless Spending

Welcome to another edition of Frugal Friday. If you missed my first post from a couple of weeks ago, you can catch it here: Frugal Friday #1. In that post I talked about how I feel clutter is costing us money, real money. I'm guessing many of you reading can relate.


This week I thought I would talk about another area that costs my family money: buying stuff we don't need. I can't tell you the number of times I have gone to the store (Target specifically) and bought something I didn't need because, "it was a good deal" or "it was on clearance". Well, I'm about to share a big fat secret with you, prepare yourself.



If you don't need the item any cost above $0 is NOT a good deal. Let that sink in. It is NOT a good deal. Let me give you an example of where I purchased an item I don't need. In order to make room for a recently installed dishwasher (my first one EVER!), I lost a kitchen cabinet. With this loss, I needed to reorganize a few cabinets to make room for my homeless items. In my cleaning/reorganizing, I found fifteen insulated lunch bags. FIFTEEN! We only have two people in our house that need to even pack a lunch, my hubby and I (my oldest son gets free lunch at school thanks to a grant his school district receives for all students). I of course only use 1-2 of these bags and my husband doesn't use any, he opts for the classy system of shoving his food in his briefcase. Sigh.

Too many hats and mittens for one family!

Ok, so I found these fifteen bags in my cabinets in October. During the month of December I found myself at OfficeMax and they had an insulated bag on clearance for $3. It is a freezable sandwich bag.... I don't have one of those .....and it was only $3.....and it was a super cute pattern. I bought the stupid thing. Why? Why? Why? I know, it is only $3, but these little purchase are what add up and I didn't NEED the silly thing. In January I did this at Target with crib sheets. We already have 4, I bought 2 more because they were on clearance for $2.98. Ugh, why?


I am especially guilty of these mindless purchases at Target. Their clearance aisles are so irresistible. I find all kinds of goodies all the time but before you know it, your quick run in for your prescriptions has you standing in line with $50 of "stuff" in your cart. My husband has this problem at Menard's. He goes for nails and comes home with crap we don't "need" all the time: hand soap, batteries, rugs(!),household cleaners. Heck, my garage and basement are full of these silly thoughtless spending trips.

Look at all those lint rollers!

So we're making a real effort this year not to make these purchases and to ask ourselves, "do we really need this item" before making the purchase. Just asking yourself that simple question before making the purchase can help. Another way to cut back on mindless purchasing: make less trips to the store. Wait till you have a list of items you need instead of going for one thing or going because you're bored. If less trips isn't enough, ask your partner to make the trip to the store for you instead. Swap trips, for us that means my husband may need to go to Target and I go to Menard's. I won't be as tempted to fill my cart with unneeded stuff at the home improvement store and he will not do such mindless shopping as I do at Target....heck, I don't think he knows where their baby aisle even is! 


We also created a "do not buy" list that we both have access to on our phones when we are at the store. We have items on our "do not buy" list that fall into this mindless spending category and our "clutter" spending category (related to the first Frugal Friday post). Here are some of the items on our list:  batteries, hand soap, lotion, toothbrushes. Very similarly, you could keep an inventory list of items you have, I could see this being really benificial with food items. How many times have you found yourself buying a spice for a recipe because you weren't sure you had any at home but when you get home you already have 3 bottles of that same spice....Ugh, molasses anyone?....it will only take me till ETERNITY to use those bottles.

So in closing, give some thought to your mindless spending and find ways to reduce or eliminate it before it becomes a real budget buster!

Frugel Friday #1: How Clutter Costs Me Money

I return to work in just one week from now after having off for the last ten weeks on maternity leave to care for my third (and final) baby boy, Thomas.  I have really enjoyed my time home with him and my middle son part time for three days a week (he goes to day care for the other two days to keep some routine in his life). Our day care bill is about to go from $240/week to $635/week, so we need to be mindful of our spending.  REALLY mindful of our spending. 

We do not have a lot of areas we can cut back on.  Our mortgage is already pretty cheap, we don't have car loans or credit card debt, we don't have cable or super huge cell phone bills.  Our family has done "no spend" months in the past and those have been popular posts on my blog (see here, here, here, and here) so I thought it would be fun to pop in once in awhile on this blog and share how we're saving money where we can.  I'm calling it, Frugal Friday.

Frugal Friday will be a day where I can share our ups and downs, share tips on how we save, and hopefully have you the reader do the same!  PLEASE!  I love reading blogs about saving money, if you have a great tip, please share it with me.

So let's begin by talking about one area where I think this family loses money:  CLUTTER.

Dun dun duuuun. 

Clutter.

Clutter costs this family real money.  You see, everything is so disorganized in this house, I'm guessing many of you can relate.  When things are disorganized you can't find the "thing" you are looking for.  When you can't find that said "thing" you go out and buy a new "thing" to replace the "thing" you can't find.  Suddenly before you know it you have 35 of that same "thing" in the house.  For us, this happens a lot.  The "thing" is: hats/gloves, batteries, dishtowels, lip gloss, plastic containers, socks, crib sheets, etc.  I could keep going but I think you get the picture, I'm sure you all have plenty of your own "things" that multiply.  Not only do they cost you money when you replace them but the time you spent looking for them is precious time you can't get back.  I read we all waste something like 40 minutes a day looking for stuff.  I believe it.  Sometimes it is just easier to go buy a new one than to look and find the one you're looking for, right?  This mindset costs us money, real money.   So it is time to get rid of this money drainer. 

I've been slowly working on trying to organize our house.  With three little boys in the house (and one big one), that hasn't been easy but so far I have managed to organize and group a few areas that I think were costing us money.  Here's one:

Household Supplies

Our entry closet has been under utilized since the day we moved into this house (11 years ago!).  Look at that hot mess!  Every time I opened that door, something fell on top of me.  This is nothing but a waste of space and a place where we were losing money.  You might be asking how this dirty closet was costing us money.   This closet was supposed to be holding our supply of paper products and cleaning supplies but you can't see them behind all the clutter....and because you can't see it, we went out and bought more.  More than we need.  We bought two huge packs of toilet paper in the last two weeks because we thought we were out.

Seriously?  Look at this closet!  That floor mop is suspended in the air and defying the law of gravity.  Like that isn't waiting to fall and get broken and then I would have to buy a new one that would cost me more money.  

And that poor shelf up above has so much potential but is being under utilized by disorganization.  

I cleaned out this under utilized closet and got to work.  Usually this means a trip to target to get some new and pretty organizational crates, baskets, plastic containers ($$$), etc BUTTTT, remembering my neighbor's recent post on her blog challenging us to living simply, I reorganized organized this closet for ZERO DOLLARS!  ZERO DOLLARS people, come on, I should get a high five for doing that!

I grabbed a shelf from the basement that wasn't being used.  My husband wanted to put this ugly beast in our tiny office off of our bedroom.......gasp......the horror..... so I needed to come up with a purpose for this shelf stat.

So here it is, being put to use.  Isn't this closet all nice and pretty now?  Now I know just how many rolls of toilet paper and paper towel we have, the answer is too many.  Oh, anyone need a lint roller?  We have more rolls than we will ever use!

Look at all those Swiffers!  My kids love to push those around It is nice to know how many boxes we have (enough to last us till the kids move out of the house).  I mean seriously, they don't love to push them around that much and I'm smart enough to realize their love for cleaning will wear off before the Swiffers run out)!   Oh, I even found a battery operated push broom new in the box inside this closet, I didn't know we had that! I had just added that to my "to buy" list the day before.  Score! 

Then this morning, I found myself searching Amazon.com for pretty over the door organizers and had a light bulb moment when I thought, I bet we have one of these in the basement and I can put all of our hats and mittens in it!  Sure enough, I found one in the basement (a couple actually) and got to work. The one on amazon was really pretty but this one was free and it is going inside a closet, no one is going to see it....oh, and did I mention our increasing day care bill? 

I gathered all of our winter hats, gloves, and scarves (you know, the ones we can never find so we go buy more of them) and now they are all nicely sorted and stored in one location.  No more need to buy hats!

I challenge you to find the areas in your house that are costing you money because of clutter and take some action this week to organize, sort, and get rid of stuff you no longer need/use.

Let me know what you find!

No Spend Wrap Up

Well our monthly "No Spend" challenge has come to an end.  The last week (which was really 10 days thanks to the long month) was a killer!  Man alive was it hard.  I came down with a stomach virus during the last week of this challenge and it contributed to us not making our goal to only spend $200 for the entire month of January.  I got to say though, we came really really close and I'm really proud of how close we came.

We didn't start out so hot.  My hubby ordered a couple mouth guards online for $12, sure that's a good deal and sure he needs them but during our home stretch?  Yeah, I let it slide, after all I had no business making that marker and stamp order in week three which was well over $12.  We had friends over one day and our lack of dinner planning caused us to order a pizza after they left.  I had good intentions to put something in the crock pot that day, it just never happened.  We spent $7 out of our pocket thanks to a visa rebate card my hubby had in his wallet.

We've been in a disagreement about these gift cards all month and if they count or don't count against our "No Spend" challenge.  I say they don't count because we have so many that we haven't used (well over $500 people!).  He thinks it is cheating.  I say, "this is my game, we follow my rules".  Right?!

I'm not sure why we have so many.  It is like I collect them to never use them.  I say enough is enough, this is free money that needed to get cashed in!  Now in fairness, I always buy our grocery gift cards through my son's scrip program through school (his school gets 5-10% of the sale back to them).  We agreed a long time ago (outside of this challenge) to count those gift cards in our budget when we spend the money at the grocery store and not when we buy the actually gift cards, so any spending I did at the grocery store this month (regardless if it was spent with a GC) counted against our budget.  All the rest of the gift cards pictured here came to us as gifts or as store credit.  Anyway, the point was, my hubby is wrong and I'm right.  I just want to be sure we all remember the point here.  I'm right.  He's wrong.  Awe, that never gets old.  The only thing that would make that statement better is if it was coming out of his mouth instead of mine.

The rest of the week's spending was a direct result of a stomach virus which I had for 5 very LONG days:  crackers, Gatorade, drugs from the pharmacy, McDonald's for the boys.  I think you get the picture.  Here is the breakdown:

$12     Mouth Guards
$7       Pizza
$7.50  Drugs at the pharmacy
$2.50  One sleeve of crackers (the only thing I ate for 4 days, yes just the one sleeve)
$8.50  McDonald's (because I was a single parent on my sick day)
$2       Gatorade (Dr's orders)
$4       Milk (Hubby: "how much is a gallon of milk normally?", Me:  "Not the same price as gold!")
$7       More milk, 2 gallons this time (making yogurt) and some washer fluid for my car
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$50.20 Total

We could of done better but in all fairness we really could have done much much worse!

So let me remind you how all the other weeks went:

$28.76  Week 1:  We did great.  We ate lots of meals from the freezer and used what was on hand
$72.29  Week 2:  Yikes!  I was the matron of honor in a wedding, it could have been much much worse!
$68.02  Week 3:  I really got the itch to shop and spend some money....and I did.
$50.20  Week 4:  For 10 days and a really bad stomach virus...not bad, not too bad at all.
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$219.27  Total

When all is said and done, we went $20 over our goal.  Not bad, right?  We should be reaping these rewards into February and March.  I'm not going to lie though, I'm SOOOOO happy it is over!

Forgive me while I catch up from being sick.  I'll be back soon with that yogurt post that I promised last week!

No Spend: Week Three In Review

Hi Everyone.  I'm here to tell you how the most-difficult-week-of-my-life went.  Ok, I'm being a little over dramatic but it was no walk in the park.  It seems the 3rd week of our "No Spend" challenge has proved once again to be the most challenging.

Let me you remind you once again what our "No Spend" challenge is all about:  After a month of holiday spending, my hubby and I are taking the month of January to get our finances back on track and have officially made January a "No Spend" month.  This means we gave ourselves a $200 budget for the ENTIRE month which includes all expenses (excluding gas for our vehicles and normal bills like our mortgage).

We started out the week by going to our favorite restaurant, Culver's.  We did pretty good here, for the three of us that ate, we managed to keep our bill at $10 with coupons.  We used a gift card to pay for it....free night for us!  Woohoo.  All three of us also managed to get free custard with some vouchers we had saved from previous visits (although I'm still bitter I had to share mine with the baby, for as much as that kid can eat, I have no idea how he is only the 10th percentile).  Double score, free custard!  While we did really good this night, this trip seemed to open the gates to other spending.  Spending we weren't so good with: like the online stamp purchase at Papertrey Ink (yeah, weak willpower on their release night), a splurge trip to TJ Max that resulted in me walking out with alcohol artist markers (that were a good deal but I still should have skipped this deal), and another night out for dinner at McDonald's.

Ugh, it was a looooong week.  I chalk it up to the fact that I worked a lot of hours (you know, at my real full time job) and coupled with really crummy weather, weak willpower, and self talk that kept telling me, "I earned it", I just gave in.

There were some bright spots this week.  My oldest son (5) was invited to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese and we managed to buy all the above for $25 as a gift for the birthday girl.  Count it, that's four canvases, 10 bottles of acrylic paint, and 10 paintbrushes.  Great deal, right?  The canvases were all half off. Even better, I used a gift card so nothing came out of our bank account.  I love this gift.  It is so hard to find nice gifts that are not over commercialized, I thought this was the perfect gift for a budding artista (and my son's future wife).

I made this card to go with the gift.  I love making cards that fit the theme of the gift, it makes for such a nice little touch.  It tells the recipient that you put some time and thought into the gift that you just gave to them.

I think our gift was a hit and it is hopefully coming in handy right now on these bitterly cold days (-40 degrees with the windchill, even for Wisconsin, that's cold).  

Well even though that week didn't turn out the way I had hoped, we are not giving up.  We're still sticking to our "No Spend" challenge.  With a 10 day stretch to go, I'm feeling pessimistic that we will make our goal, but hey, even if we don't, we're still walking away winners.  

Here is a summary of our spending this week:

$22.58   Papertrey Ink purchase

$7.37     Groceries (rice and frozen strawberries)

$.16       Lunch @ Noodles (free voucher)

$16.67  30 pack of artist alcohol blending markers (was $30 but I used a $15 gift card)

$10.56  groceries (apples, milk, and butter)

$10.68  Dinner at McDonald's

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$68.02  Ouch!  

I'll be back later this week with a recipe that will not only save you a few bucks at the grocery store but will knock your socks off with how delicious it is:  Homemade Yogurt.

No Spend Week 2 Review

Well I thought I would tell you all how the second week of our no spend challenge went.  After a month of holiday spending, my hubby and I are taking the month of January to get our finances back on track and have officially made January a "No Spend" month.  This means we gave ourselves a $200 budget for the ENTIRE month which includes all expenses (excluding gas for our vehicles and normal bills like our mortgage).

I got to say, this second week was not as easy as the first week!  Nope.  Not as easy. We saw lots of spending challenges this week, the biggest one being that I was the matron of honor in a wedding last Saturday.  Weddings are killers on budgets!

Everyone knows how crazy expensive weddings are for the bride and groom, but if you have ever had the honor to stand up in a wedding, you know just how quickly the expenses add up for the wedding party as well (especially the females).  There is the dress, the shoes, hair, make-up, jewelry, purse, rehearsal dinner, the bridal shower, the bachelorette party, and of course, the actual wedding gift.  For females this can quickly add up to $500 or more.  You think I'm joking?  Let's break this down:

$100-$150- Average Dress
$25- Alterations to dress
$40- Shoes
$80- Hair (after tip!)
$30- Make up
$30- Nails
$50- Accessories like jewelry, purse, nylons, etc
$50- bridal shower gift
$50- bachelorette party
$50-$100 on the actual gift

These costs don't even factor in things like a babysitter for the day, new outfits for any of the events you go to, possible the over night stay in a hotel if the wedding is away from your home.  I think you get the point, these expenses add up fast!

Now this isn't to say it isn't all worth it!  It certainly is.  The three weddings I have been privileged enough to stand up in were worth every penny!  Yes, EVERY PENNY.

Our Wedding in Key West, Florida.  November 6, 2004.

I am also extremely grateful for the group that showed up to our wedding, I know it wasn't cheap for them to all fly to the Conch Republic to hang out with us! Each and every person in this above photo made our trip extra special.  THANK YOU!  I walked away with memories that will last me a lifetime!  I hope they all can say the same thing too!  This photo is so cute, everyone looks so young (especially my hubby).  Geeze, now I have a permanent smile on my face for the rest of the day.    LOVE IT.

Me in my wedding "accessories"

Anyway, back to the topic here.  The point I am trying to make is this: weddings can be a budget buster.  If you accept that special honor of standing up in someone's wedding, go into it with a plan because the event can quickly derail your budget.   I did just that this month.  In order for this "No Spend" month to work, I needed a plan.  I couldn't tell my bestie, "sorry hon, no present for you, we're not spending money this month".  We predetermined that everything that was "required" in the wedding (such as the dress) or things that were a "group activity" (like hair) were considered an expense and treated like a bill (i.e. don't count against the budget for "No Spend"), however, any items that I did on my own "just because" counted.  This helped keep the expenses down.  To be frank, most of my spending for this wedding happened in previous months anyway (like the dress, shoes, purse, and shower/bachelorette gift) so there wasn't that much that counted anyway, but you'll see it did put a pretty big dent in our $200 spending goal.

Just to be transparent (because otherwise I feel like it is cheating), here are few additional items we bought but we are counting as an expense because they were "required" or were considered a "group activity" purchase for the wedding:

$85 wedding gift
$20 nylons, yes, I should have bought cheaper ones, I bought thick ones thinking I would get more than one use out of them, but these still got a run in them, lesson learned!
$80 hair
$25 drinks at dinner and reception (between my hubby and I, we only bought 5 drinks total between two locations but it would have been weird to sip water all night)...this one might be a bit of a cheat. I kind of feel it should go up above....but hey, this is my game so we follow my rules :)

If you are in a wedding, here are some ideas or ways to cut costs:

Do your own make-up and/or hair or have a friend do it

At my sister's wedding this summer, I had my make-up done.  It cost roughly $30.  This time around for my friend P's wedding, I did it myself.  FOR FREE.  Nothing beats free.  When I stood up in my friend Ron's wedding, the bride fixed my hair (she is a hairdresser).  Yes, the bride fixed my hair the day of her wedding.

Use what you already have whenever you can

This is hard.  Everyone wants new purses, shoes, shawls, etc.  Sometimes the bride has special colors and you have to buy new items but if you already own it, USE IT.  Using what you already own is FREE. P gave us jewelry as a gift, BUDGET SAVER!  I used nail polish that P gave to me as a gift several months earlier (and painted them myself for FREE).

If you have to buy something, buy something you will use again

For P's wedding, I had to wear nude colored shoes.  I bought shoes that I would wear again after the event (and yes, I have already worn them again!).  I bought a dress (actually two, long story) that I can wear again. For my sister's wedding I bought a clutch that I will use again.

Buy thoughtful gifts, not expensive ones

Etsy is my best friend for weddings.  Nice prints are always a great way to go.  Some of my favorite wedding items can be found here, here, and here.  I always buy gifts that fit the style of the wedding or the couple (or hopefully both).  In other words, if they love birds, buy something with birds on it.  If they are going somewhere tropically, buy something with a palm tree on it.  Be carefully, it is easy to get cheesy here instead of thoughtful!

Here I am at my sister's wedding. July 2013

For my sister's wedding, the party bought a group gift.  So my hubby and I also gave her and her groom something non-monetary.  My hubby said he would help with the remodel of their house for a weekend.  I said I would run a 5K with my sister, ugh, I'm still regretting working on that promise.

Now let me give you the run down on our spending for the week:

$.50  Parking meter (at the mall to buy those required nylons)
$23   Eyebrow waxing + tip (yeah, not a group activity for the wedding) but it HAD to get done :)
$15  Coffee, tea, and danishes for the bride and wedding party the morning of the event (I used a gift card to reduce costs, total was $22)
$33.79 groceries for the week (this had nothing to do with the wedding)
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$72.29

Yikes!  A little over that goal of $50 for the week but not too bad considering we had a major event mixed in there.  Luckily we were under budget during the first week.

Well, we are half way through our "No Spending" month.  We have officially spent $101.05 of our $200 budget.  That's not too bad. I'll be back in a couple days with a summary of our 3rd week (The hardest week for me the first time we did this challenge about a year ago).  Come back to see if it is my hardest week this time around as well.

See you soon!

No Spend Week One Review

Well, we're deep into week two of no spending here in the Stark household.  I thought I'd give you all a little update on how we're doing.  Let me remind you of what our goals are for the month.

After a month of holiday spending, my hubby and I are taking January to get our finances back on track and have officially made January a "No Spend" month.  This means we gave ourselves a $200 budget for the ENTIRE month which includes all expenses (excluding gas for our vehicles and normal bills like our mortgage).  In order to achieve this goal, we're practicing a little self control when it comes to buying things we NEED and/or items we WANT.

Cheap (but delicious) Stew

I found during this first week that sometimes what we WANT is masked as a NEED.  Let me give you a little example.  I ran out of coffee creamer at work this week and I found myself saying that I NEEDED to get to the grocery store to buy another.  However,  in my refrigerator at home,   I had two half bottles.  My focus on my finances made me pause and realize I didn't run out of coffee creamer,  I ran out of my FAVORITE FLAVOR of coffee creamer.  I was masking a WANT with a NEED.  You see what I mean?

Let me give you another example.  I found myself doing it again later in the week with shampoo.  I thought I would have to run out and by more shampoo, however, I have a whole container full of sample shampoos that I've been saving for months and even years.  What am I saving them for?  I tell myself to use them when we go on vacation or camping but I had at least 12 sample bottles and at the rate we go on vacations, that would take me about 15 years to use.  Now these samples are not my favorite brand of shampoo, which is why they have been laying around as long as they have, however they are perfectly fine shampoo.  So, I spent 15 minutes squeezing all those tiny jar samples into my big bottle.  I didn't really NEED more shampoo.

You see how this is working?  These excess products are all over our houses, they are all over mine.  They take up space, they cost money, and their not being utilized.  This was the second biggest reason we wanted to complete a "No Spend" challenge.  We wanted to reduce and in most cases get rid of the products by using them and we're doing just that.  Not only do you save money by not going out and buying more "stuff" but you start to de-clutter your surroundings.  It is truly a win-win situation.

I'm sure you're all wondering how we're doing, right?  Some of you might be secretly hoping we crash and burn at this little challenge, that's fine, I'm a little evil like that too.  Some of you are playing along, that's great!  I hope you are feeling a little uncomfortable but your wallet is feeling a bit fatter!

 We're actually doing really great.  Now I'm not a fool and I know (because I've done this once before) that the first week is the easiest but I'm still really happy with our week.

The boys on New Year's Day

For the first three days we didn't spend a penny.  Not one little penny!  We didn't eat out, we didn't go grocery shopping, We ate lasagna for left overs, made BBQ chicken from the freezer, used up vegetables we had remaining from our CSA.  It was good, not great, but good.  We survived.

On day 4, I spend $.99 on an electronic file of lips and mustaches (for a wedding game I was in charge of, more to come next week) and I spent $3.16 on shipping for a brag book I created.  There was a free offer for a brag book from Walgreens with free shipping, I could pass up that offer so I spent a couple hours creating my book.  By the time the book was created, the free shipping coupon disappeared but I decided to buy the book anyway.  I decided by two hours of time was worth $3.16.
On day 5, my oldest son and I went to visit my grandfather who fell ill and was in the hospital, because of poor planning on my part, we ate lunch at the hospital.  That cost us $4.30.  After the hospital, my son and I went to Wal-mart and returned some duplicate Christmas presents that we received.  With that in-store credit we bought two household essentials:  milk and cat food (we were completely out of both and couldn't delay that purchase any longer).  The net amount we spent was $1.51 (after the store credit).  THANK YOU SANTA.

Day 6 was spend free.

$18.80 in groceries, only the necessities

On Day 7, my son and I (his school was closed due to extreme cold) headed back to the hospital to visit my grandfather again, this time with a packed brown bag lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Are you proud of me?  I learned from my mistake a couple days earlier and gave myself 10 minutes to pack a lunch for us.  Usually I would have used this visit as an excuse to eat on the road, but not today.  On the way home we stopped at the grocery store and picked up some food we needed for school and work lunches.  

So here is the total for the first 7 days:

$.99      Digital file
$3.16    Shipping on a brag book
$4.30    Lunch for J and I
$1.51    Milk and cat food
$18.80  Groceries
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$28.76  TOTAL

Well under our $50 for the week, good thing because I have a feeling that I'll need that cushion later in the month!  If you're playing along, share how it's going.  Here is a great blog to read for more inspiration on being FRUGAL.

In my next post I'll probably share with you my biggest hording area and the area that costs my family the most amount of money.

New Year. No Spend.

Well the holidays are over and a new year has begun.  That means the holiday bills are about to become due!  If you're feeling like you did a little too much "ho ho ho'ing" this holiday season like I am feeling, join me this month as my family attempts another "No Spend" month.

Some of our holiday spending

 The concept is simple.  The goal is to try to spend as little money as possible for the entire month.  Oh, but how fun would it be if the goal was to spend AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE.  Maybe someday when I fall into a billion dollars.  To start a "No Spend" Challenge is simple:  Set your goal amount, any amount you want really and try to stick with it as hard as it might be.  You exclude bills (if this isn't obviously) that are regularly and currently due.  I'm not 100 percent positive but I'm going to guess that my sons' day care centers would not appreciate me skipping payment for an entire month just because I'm in some "challenge" to not spend....or my mortgage company....or the insurance agent, you get the picture.

The goal is to reduce the day to day spending we all do.  You know, the little things that add up really fast like:  groceries, eating out, a nice yummy FourBucks (aka Starbucks) mocha, a Target run where I only go for one item but come home with at least twelve....I'm sure many of you can relate.  That's the spending that hurts the budget.  That's the spending we are trying to eliminate as much as possible for this month (well any month really). 

Us eating on the cheap back in 2012

 We haven't attempted a No Spend month since October 2012 so it is time once again to try to significantly reduce our spending for an entire month.  With all our holiday spending barely behind us, but the bills yet to come due, I thought the timing couldn't be better and I'm betting a lot of you are feeling the same way.  The goal last time was to only spend $250 for the entire month.  I ended up spending $418 ($254 once gas was excluded).  While we didn't meet our goal to only spend $250, we reaped the benefits to our bank account the following month anyway. This time around, we're aiming for $200 for the entire month (excluding gas).  Yep, I am a glutton for punishment.

That means my budget is $50 a week (I find it easier to focus on a week as a time but you do it your own way).  Now, $50 is less than I usually spend in groceries alone in a week's time so this isn't going to be easy.  There are lots of ways to cut back.  I'll go through some of my tips and tricks and how we get through the weeks (if we do!) in my upcoming posts.

I invite you all to join me and share with me your successes, challenges, and failures along the way.  I'll be doing the same. Tips from you on saving money are especially invited as you play along!  Trust me, even if you don't make your ultimate goal, any amount of cut back really helps the bank account and gets your financial picture back in order after a season of spending giving.  

If you need some inspiration, you can read about my previous No Spend Challenge here:

Week 1: Getting Starting & sharing a cheap recipe, oh, this was fun to read, I announced my pregnancy in one of these posts
Week 2: No Spend Challenges, we announced we were having a baby boy! 
Week 3:  I shared a cheap recipe with you all.
Week 4:  Wrap Up.  Successes, Challenges, Failures. 

Talk to you all real soon!  Now stay in and do something free for a change.  That's what we'll be doing! 

No Spend Month Wrap Up

Family Shot: Halloween 2012

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted!  Geez, I've been busy.  I'm not even sure with what, I certainly don't feel like I have accomplished much in the last several weeks.  I guess growing a baby takes a lot out of you!  I've spent most days working my hinder off at the office and have come home too pooped to do much more than the basics.  Most nights I don't make it to 10pm, my husband would tell you some nights I don't make it till 9pm (I think there were a few nights that I beat the 4 year old to bed).   For those of you that are fans of Modern Family, last night's episode was about "pregnancy brains".  I've been experiencing a mild case of that lately.  Latest proof was found in my fridge tonight when I decided to store the ice cream in there last night.  I was really looking forward to eating that ice cream tonight.

My Pregnancy Brain sabotaging me.  I was looking forward to eating that ice cream.

We did make it through our "No Spend" Challenge.  No tears were shed but I have to say, I am so HAPPY it is over!  That was not easy!  We spent a total of $418.  Certainly, we went well over our $250 allotment but if I take gas purchases out of the picture (which I really probably should have done given that our cars are not an option), we only spent $254.  Woot!  Woot!  I'm going to call that a success!  We accomplished this by eating a lot of cheap simple meals.  Meals like: eggs, grilled cheese, lots of rice side dishes.  We also ate lots of staples from our pantry and freezer, some of them were past their "expiration" (do noodles really expire?).  We also rarely ate out (unless someone else was paying) and kept ourselves entertained by doing "free" stuff, like going to the zoo (we already have a membership), visiting with family, and playing outside at the park.

J as a Monster for Halloween 2012

I crafted almost exclusively using supplies that I already own, forgoing Papertrey Ink's product release on the 15th.   That's a HUGE sacrifice people, especially with the holidays sneaking up on us as fast as they always do.  I was still able to make my son's Halloween costume and stick to budget.  This year he was a monster. I spent a total of $9 ($7 on the sweatshirt and $2 on the ping pong balls), everything else for his costume came from my craft supplies already on hand.  I'd say the costume was a success and I'm super happy he decided against going as a frog, I had no idea how I was going to make that happen.  

J's cute monster tail

Our best week was our last week and a half, which I find to be completely odd since I thought that would be the hardest week of all of them.  We only spent $79 that week ($29 of that on gas).  I did exclude a $30 dog food purchase.  Our dog doesn't eat the way it is, I really didn't need to purposely starve him for the purposes of this challenge.  Don't worry, he was as happy as a clam, I was trying to prolong his food purchase as long as possible and he got cans of wet dog food that we had laying around the house.  For a dog that doesn't eat, I've never seen him so happy!  He had no problems eating on wet dog food days, what a stinker.

I'm happy we did this challenge.  I feel a little better going into this holiday season of spending with the previous month of "no spend" behind us.  This may or may not become an annual event for us.  I have almost a whole year to figure that out.

No Spend Week 3

This week has proven to be the toughest.  I have had weak moments where I really just want to say, "screw it", but I haven't.  I'm sticking with it.  I'm sure addicts have similar feelings when they try to quit smoking, just on a much more intense level or like when you try to go on a diet:  the first week is easy because motivation is high but as the weeks go on, it gets tougher and tougher to resist eating those hot fudge sundaes.  

While I feel I have been struggling, my husband has struggled even more, except he is stubborn and won't admit it.  He bought vacuum bags (even though I had already bought some) because,  "they were a good deal", a stand for his tablet because, "it was only $25", and a modem because, "it was a good deal".  Do you see a theme here?  We are in the middle of a no spend challenge, EVERYTHING is a bad deal!  I really want to buy some new fabric and come home and say, "but it was a good deal", but I'm a bigger person than that (I'll just whine about it on my blog).  :)

As hard as I try, I just can't control him.  One day they'll make a robotic husband that will listen to my every command, until then, I'll try to work around with him.

I did splurge this week and went out to dinner with friends.  I had a goal to only spend $10 while out and I didn't get even close to keeping that goal.  With tip, I spent $17.  I told myself I won't order a drink: I got tea.  I told myself I wouldn't get an appetizer: I got soup.  I did however buy the cheapest entrée listed on the menu, a fancy grilled cheese sandwich.  I would have been better off getting the expensive scallops dinner and skipping the drink and soup.  I certainly would have left more satisfied.  Lesson learned and notes made for next time.

There were some positives this week.  I made a great breakfast that really can stretch a buck and it was delicious too.

Cheddar Popovers

Makes 12 popovers

Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk (I used 1%)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
diced scallions

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a standard size 12 cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. 

Mix eggs, flour, milk, salt, and garlic powder in a bowl with a hand mixer (or whisk should work).  Pour batter in to muffin tin filling each cup 2/3 full.  Top each cup with cheddar cheese and scallions (skip the scallions for the picky eaters).  Bake for 20-25 minutes until tops are risen and firm and golden brown.  

Remove popovers from tin and cool on wire rack.  Brown up some yummy hash browns to eat along the side, these potatoes came courtesy of my dad's garden.

In total, we spent $141 this week.  Our worst week yet.  Here is the breakdown:

Gas:                      $49
groceries:               $18
vacuum bags:         $13
Ericka dinner out:   $17
Modem/tablet:        $44 

I'm excited about this final FULL week.  My husband reminded me that we need to go into a 5th week for a few days too {AUGH} since this month has 31 days.  We should have done this in February.

"No Spend" Week Two

Day 9-  I went grocery shopping and spent $13 on basics:  milk, cheese, onions, spinach, cream, garlic bread (yeah I know, the bread is probably not a basic).  I tried real hard to keep it at $10.  That garlic bread put us over the $10 mark but it will also be used for 3 separate meals so I'm not feeling too bad about buying it.  I find myself studying prices more than ever (which is half the point of this challenge, I think).  For example, I only needed 8 oz of mozzarella cheese for the meal I was making.  The store had three options:

8 oz brick on sale for $2
8 oz shredded on sale for $3
16 oz brick on sale for $3

I would normally buy the shredded cheese for the convenience but for only $1 more, I was able to buy enough for a whole second meal and at the rate my family goes through cheese, I have no concerns about it being put to good use.

Day 10-  We were doing great this week until today.  My hubby went to see Louis CK and bought a round a drinks.  The ticket was $45 and the round of drinks (for two) was $9.  Man, this hurt.  I really think he should have declined the invite but I think I would have also accepted the offer to go especially if it was someone like Tom Petty or Keb' Mo'.  This show cost us 18% of our allotted budget!  At least he had a good time.

Day 11-  We found out we're having a boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was hard not to go out for ice cream to celebrate but we went home and I made chocolate chip cookies instead.  It was still special.  :)

Week Two is at a close and we spent another $100 of our $250 budget.  NOT GOOD.  Not good at all.  Here is the breakdown:

$19 Groceries (basics like bread, cheese, and milk)
$27 Gas
$54 Tickets and drinks at Louis CK Show

Take out the show and drinks and we'd be doing pretty good!  I'd say that's not too bad but with only  $52 left in our pockets and two weeks to go, I'm pretty sure we will be going over our $250 budget but we're still sticking with it to see just how close we can be.   

"NO SPEND" Challenge

Call me crazy but the hubby and I are attempting a "NO SPEND" month for the entire month of October. By "NO SPEND" I really mean "almost no spend". The idea came from a

pinterest link I saw on a friend's account. Rachel Meeks from the Small Notebook blog  explains how this has become an annual tradition in their house. She says they budget $400 a month (currently, when she started it was only $250) to spend on themselves like food, gas, clothes, household items, and fun. Excluded items are: rent and bills, insurance, health care, business expenses, and gifts for others. In other words there is NO UNNECESSARY SPENDING.

At first glance this seemed easy to me so I showed it to my husband and asked, "Do you think we could possible do this?". Without hesitation, Mr. Cheap pants replied, "I can". Of course I knew that was going to be his answer before I even asked him. We agreed to try this with a $250 budget for this month. We decided on $250 because that was what Rachel's budgeted when she first started this challenge in 2007.

I'm expecting to see this face a few time this month

 Looking at our budget, this will be no easy task. We tracked every single penny we spent during the month of August and here are some examples of what we spent in different categories:

August 2012 Spending

Gas:  $148

Groceries: $260 (lower than normal)

Eating out: $235 (higher than normal)

Crafts: $102

Not spending money on eating out is going to be the toughest (for all three of us), me especially. I HATE packing a lunch. HATE IT. It takes so much work and planning, both of which I don’t want to deal with in an already stressed morning routine and I never feel like getting my lunch packed the night before, I just want to sit and relax at the end of the day. “But this was your idea”, said smart cheap husband. Yes. Yes it was. I’ll find a way.

Yeah, might see this one too!

So here are the top three reasons we are going to attempt this “NO SPEND” month:

1.Christmas is less than 3 months away and we always need money around Christmas time. I thought if we limited our spending in the month of October, our holiday spending in November might be a bit easier on the budget.

2. I like a good challenge. I am extremely competitive and I don’t like to lose at anything. Hopefully this challenge will help me use my competitive nature for good rather than for evil {insert evil laugh here}. Hubby rolls eyes and says, “Yeah right”.

3. We’re expecting baby #2. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! When our newest bundle of joy arrives in February 2013, they will be putting a squeeze on our already squeezed budget. Day care alone for this new little worm will come with a cost of $310 a week. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not burying $1200 in the backyard every month just because I got nothing else to do with it.

Johnathan practicing being a big brother

I’ll be blogging weekly about our progress and how we’re doing towards our “NO SPEND” goal.  It will be hard, and it is going to require sacrifice. I’m hoping it will free up some time to work on those new year’s resolutions that I made but have not gotten around to. As the old saying goes, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”. We’ll see if that really holds true for this family of three (soon to be four).