A few times a year a try to do a "no spend challenge" for an entire month. My husband has been off work since the end of June so we've already been living pretty tightly but I still wanted to try to tighten our belt a little more and also to get back into a budget mind. We are praying that Darryl can go back to work this month so until he's been back to work for awhile, we really have to stick to a super strict budget plan in order to get back on our feet so this will just be the start of that plan.
So what exactly is a "No Spend Challenge"? There are many different ideas and versions out there. Some say that you cannot spend any money the entire month so your cupboards and freezer had better be stocked. I'm not into that :-) Instead, I fall along the lines of planning and then not spending any money outside of that plan. I also only plan the "musts" - bills, groceries, gas, and yes, a little money to eat out (very little) because, if I don't, I know we'll fail! I also look at other things such as the boys soccer photos, knowing I need to buy some clothes for the boys and even dog food :-)
I spent some time over the holiday weekend and really looked at our month and made our tight budget and we are starting it as of September 1st (so it has already started!)
I probably won't say a whole lot about our plan until we get to the end of the month. Truth be told, we have zero extra money right now anyway so we shouldn't be spending anyway :-) I may have to redo this in October again but again, this is always a good exercise!
1 comment:
We kind of tried this during August. I did it kind of the same way you did- groceries, some necessities, but no un-budgeted extras. But with two birthdays, some travel, and school starting, it was tough. We did well, but not as well as I wanted to. I'm the saver, so it seems like a great challenge to me.
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