Not spend money for a month! Who wants in?
Today is February 1st. What’s the big deal about February 1st you might ask? To be honest, I’m not sure. It is however the month that Missi and I have decided to not spend money on anything but the essentials. What are the essentials you might ask? Food, gas and personal hygiene. That means no going out to eat, no movies, no new anything.
I have never done anything like this and am optimistic that we can do this the whole month. I will admit that I think this will be pretty challenging for me. I like going out. A LOT. Hopefully it will be a good exercise and we’ll have the disciple to not spend money on things we don’t need.
I’ll check back in a week and let all two readers know has successful Missi and I have been. Anyone care to join us in not spending money? Let us know. It would be fun to share our thoughts and experiences.
I would love to join in!!! Well, at times Ry and I have had to do this out of necessaty, and the truth is, it’s not really that difficult – what makes it difficult is when you don’t have to live like that and choose to. So I wish you (and me!) luck! What will amaze you probably is how much $ you don’t spend…and then imagine what you could do with that $ if you lived that way each month! It’s exciting!!
It does sound exciting! Especially for nerds like me!
Going out less happens to coincide with the return of LOST. Well planned good sir. I will have to ask Katie about this, sounds like something worth trying.
you have 4 readers–that is twice what you thought!
jay and i do a modified version of this. at the start of each month we each get $150 in cash. The only things that can go on the credit card are gas and groceries. All meals out, Target runs (unless it is for essentials like toilet paper, which it hardly ever is if we are honest), entertainment, booze–it all comes out of our pocket. i think really hard before i decide to pull that cash out of my pocket! it really slows your thinking down. before i would buy whatever and just charge it–it didn’t feel real.
we have been eating at home almost every meal. if you want to be extravagant at the grocery store (within reason), i think that is okay. don’t give missi a hard time about the cream soda!
Rachel…thanks for your comment. I like the cash idea. My problem is that if I see a $10 or $20 bill, it’s not that big of a deal to me. So spending it is easy and by week 2 or 3 I’d be saying, “oh crap! I have no money left.” If I were to do that I’d need the bills to be $50′s. It always hard to part with large bills I think as it makes you really think about what you’re purchasing.
With regard to Missi’s cream soda…she TOTALLY broke the rules. Acutally, I just like giving my wife a hard time. I’m the one who should be catching grief. Missi is a saver and I am the spender. If she wants cream soda, she can have cream soda.
Also…when are we all getting together? It’s been AGES!