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| "A penny saved, is a penny earned." |
This month I'm going to participate with Carla at 1/2 Dozen Daily in her month long No-Low Spend Challenge in January. During this time, Carla challenges you to figure out your necessities (such as rent, utilities, and basic food) and not to buy anything else. I'm looking forward to seeing where this challenge leads my family. Even though we look at the numbers and were doing OK, I'm still uncomfortable with some of our spending. Any extra money we realize in the end from this challenge will go to an elderly charity I'm fond of.
First my goals and personal rules for the challenge. We hope to cut out any extra spending of non essentials. For us, this will mostly mean watching our food budget and entertainment. It might also mean something like I've been needing some new jeans for a while, but I won't buy them this month. However, I will make an exception if I see a really good price on something that we have been thinking about buying for a while. Also, as deference to my family, I will not be posting many actual budget numbers. However, for those of you who do this, I find the details very interesting and often inspiring.
So how are we doing out-of-the gate on this challenge? My husband is on-board and my son who is away at college wants to participate also. However, I keep getting new ideas of how we should implement the plan, and I need to learn to control this. Every time I come up with a new rule, they say it's stricter than before and that's not what they agreed to. I sometimes tend to get carried away with things. :)
What about our actual spending? Have we been able to keep our goals for the first three days? Well not exactly, but we all know that flexibility is required in some circumstances. It's a long story, but the last couple of days, we have had to be out of the house for long hours without a lot of prep. This has resulted in a drive through meal, that under normal circumstances, wouldn't be allowed. In the meantime, if you want to join-in in your own no-spend month, we'd be glad to have you.
Good luck with the challenge! I'll be interested to see how you go. I will be doing something similar in March, after my scholarship finishes and I don't have an income any more!
ReplyDeleteThanks. How close are you to finishing? Will you have much time between your scholarship ending and being able to get a job?
DeleteI fear I'm not very good at this sort of thing... my rebellious nature kicks in whenever there are too many rules. But I do find that tracking my expenses makes me much less likely to want to spend money frivolously
ReplyDeleteCat, you have done some interesting challenges with your food and money in the past. I think this is another way to track spending, which as you said, always helps with spending wisely.
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ReplyDeleteGood luck! I'd cheat and buy everything ahead of time. With the way the weather is looking for January I may be participating by default but wait...there is Amazon. Too bad they won't deliver to our farm. Bring on the drones!
ReplyDeleteWe joked about buying a lot of stuff ahead of time, but didn't have time to do it. I think the remoteness of where you live gives you good control on your spending. Or when you make it to the store, do you buy a lot of things because it may be hard to get back?
DeleteWe tend to buy multiples of the things we use a lot so we don't have to worry in the winter. A trip out will often involve chains on the vehicle or a trip on the ATV so we tend to stock up on bulky things and non-perishables. Prior to having goats it was fresh milk that prompted bad weather trips to the store. Now that we have goats I stock up on hundreds of bales of hay and pickup truck truckloads of goat feed before the snow flies.
DeleteGood luck! We'll be doing something similar this month to get over the excesses of December!
ReplyDeleteEven when the money we spend is in the budget, I am uncomfortable spending a lot at one time. Conscious cost cutting this month I think will be a good, if not for anything else, except for my peace of mind.
DeleteI'm really interested to hear how your challenge goes. Something I like about how these challenges affect me is that they give me a jumpstart with implementing longer-term habits that I've been struggling with starting.
ReplyDeleteGood point about starting longer term habits. Considering that, I really need a challenge that involves exercise. Oh, well, one thing at a time.
DeleteBeing conscious of your spending purposefully has always helped me reign in the frivolous expenses, while making the 'needs' stand out. I hope to regain that awareness. Not spending at all for 7 days is like juicing. Cleaning out the financial muck has been revitalizing. :)! Glad you are doing this with us! :)!
ReplyDeleteIt's always good to take stock of your finances and spending then and again. I think this is a good way to pay attention to what we're really spending. I think I know, but we'll see.
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