No Spending Blog

There was an article yesterday on Get Rich Slowly talking about how a woman and her family of 3 (www.smallnotebook.org) have participated in a spending freeze for the entire month of July. She has kept track of the money she had to spend each week for necessities and the occasional splurge. I actually did a spending freeze in January and I am planning on doing it again in August. Basically what a spending freeze is, is when you only buy the absolute necessities and if you know you are going to spend money on something special, you have to plan for it. For example, tomorrow night, we are going out to eat for Tina's birthday to a moderately expensive restaurant. Since I know we are going to go there ahead of time, I am considering that a legal cheat for the spending freeze. The point of a spending freeze is to not only save money, but also to try to control overspending by challenging yourself to do better. In January when I did my spending freeze, I was competing with a co-worker to see how long we could go without spending anything. Our allowances were gas, necessary grocery staples, bills, and other necessities. I, of course, beat out my competition, but I had a lot of things stocked up, whereas, my competition did not. I spent $624.70 during the freeze, but about$400 of that was for gas. My DH and I were not carpooling at the time.

In my opinion, everybody should try to participate in a spending freeze for at least 21 days. (Statistically, that is how long it takes to create a habit) Not only to save money, but to reflect upon why you are spending money on things that are wants, not necessities. The key to a spending freeze is to keep a journal of your daily or weekly spending and to make a list of "legal cheats". These are things that you know you are going to spend money on before the freeze starts. I know there are going to be unexpected expenses, like in January when I got a flat tire and had to spend $21.95 to get it fixed, but it is a good way to learn to control your spending and impulse buying. Below are my blog entries from when I was on the spending freeze. Let me know if you are planning on trying a spending freeze. I will post a weekly reflection on my spending freeze for August.

January 1, 2008
No spending day! Read "Not Buying It", by Judith Levine, it was interesting.
January 2, 2008
No Spend day. I went to the Dermatologist, but no co-pay today.
January 3, 2008
Had to get gas for both vehicles $71.10 and I had a flat tire on the car $21.95 to get it fixed.
January 4, 2008
No Spend Day. Co-workers and I went to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch, but we had a gift card.
January 5, 2008
No spend day. We are getting low on a few items.
January 6, 2008
I had to go to the grocery store today because we are completely out of milk and cheese. But I didn't spend any money. I went to CVS and I got 4 candy bars, 2 56ct. pantiliners, a gallon of milk, a jumbo pack of Huggies, and Fructis conditioner for free using my ExtraCare bucks and a gift card. Then I went to the grocery store and got cheese and lunchmeat for free using the same giftcard.
January 7, 2008
No spend day.
January 8, 2008
DH and I both had to get gas today, $80.15 total, but returned a few Christmas items to Kohls and got back $42.
January 9, 2008
No Spend day. Ran out of eggs today.
January 10, 2008
I bought some orange juice today because we are all sick. 3 gallons for $6.71, not too bad.
January 11, 2008
No spend today. I stayed home from work to take care of sick ds.
January 12, 2008
I got gas today $32.01 and then we went to Wal-Mart. I bought cough medicine, a prescription, 2 packages of lunchmeat, a package of cheese slices, 3 cans of Pringles, powder sugar donuts, gum, 4 banquet dinners, eggs, peanut butter, and milk for $34.84. This should last for a week.
January 13, 2008
No spend day. But we are running low on pet food and soda. I was not aware of this yesterday when I was at Wal-Mart.
January 14, 2008
No spend day for me, but DH got gas in his truck $52.
January 15, 2008
No spend day
January 16, 2008
I had to get gas in my car today $28.51. Should last until next week.
January 17, 2008
I had to go get some things at the store today, but I stocked up on a lot of things so it will last us a while. I got powdered sugar donuts, orange juice, 2 packages of chicken breasts, (10) 2 liters of Dr. Pepper and (4) 12 packs of Dr. pepper (for DH), dog food (16 lb bag), 2 pkgs of cheese sticks, 2 pkgs of shredded cheese, 3 pkgs of lunchmeat, and cheese slices for $43.87. We didn't NEED anything on this list except dog food, but DH is addicted to caffeine and the other items were on sale for great prices, plus I had coupons for everything. Also, our local grocery store gives you $10 off a $50 purchase on select Thursday's and this happened to be one of them.
I did good today considering my temptations. Today was one of my co-workers last day so they ordered Jimmy Johns subs for lunch. I did not order anything. I had brought a salad and some cheese sticks, so I ate those. Then I had to get milk and diapers. I went to CVS and got the milk for free using my extracare bucks and a gift card. Then I went to Walgreens. Right now they have their Huggies Jumbo packs on sale 2/$16 and you get a free tub of wipes. Well of course I had a coupon for both diapers and the wipes so I only spent $12.50 on those. I also got 4 Glade scented oil candles for free. See my entry in the In stores forum or the couponing forum!!
Yesterday we went to my office to do some furniture assembly. I had to get gas $30, but that was all we purchased. Normally, when we go to the office on the weekend, we stop by McDonalds to get lunch, but we didn't stop yesterday. Also, we have a $10 off coupon for Lowe's that we were going to use, but we decided not too because we are technically still doing the freeze until Tuesday and we were planning on spending much more that $10. Yay for us!
Sunday January 20, 2008
No spend day. I stayed home all day today and cleaned, did laundry and cooked. I made pizza completely from scratch for dinner. I started the dough around 2:00 and let it rise for 2 1/2 hours. Then I just topped it with some ground beef, green peppers, cheese, black olives, and mushrooms. It was awesome.
Monday January 21, 2008
My husband informed me today that he needed $75 for a tool he bought for work. He does not get reimbursed for it and it was not on the approved spending list. Grrr!! Oh well, at least he is going to use it, unlike some of the other tools he has purchased. Other than the tool purchase it was a No spend day.
I had left over pizza for lunch today and for dinner I made salmon (from Aldi's), hush puppies and broccoli. Ds ate mac & cheese.
No Spend Day. I worked from home today so I didn't use as much gas as I usually would. I have a dr appt tomorrow, there goes $20 on the co-pay Oh well, at least I will get it back through my FSA.
Today for lunch I had pizza rolls. I made spaghetti and crescents for dinner. No leftovers though so I am going to have to be creative for lunch tomorrow.