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Last month, I saw that there were several “No-spend” January clubs going around. What does this mean? No eating out, eating food from your pantry till you run out, no clothes-buying, etc. It’s a great way to recover from the post-holiday deluge of spending.
However, I knew that January wasn’t the right month for us. My husband was gone to Africa for 9 days and I knew that I would want to make the occasional fast-food run and take the kids to do a few things. Spending a few bucks was definitely worth my sanity while he was gone!
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Allie’s birthday is also in January- another reason I knew it wasn’t a no-spend month for us![/caption]
But right after Christmas, we have our car insurance due, our HOA fees due, and our property taxes on our rental property due. Not a fun way to round out the year. We’re feeling the crunch this month and since we’re committed to no credit card debt, we decided that February would be a month of (almost) no spending.
So here’s what this means for us:
Obviously we still have to pay our health insurance, utility bills, and buy gas. Our kids will not go hungry. 🙂
But, our eating out will be limited to my birthday (which falls on the day of a friend’s wedding, so we’ll actually eat out on Valentine’s Day) and a bachelorette party for the same friend.
We’ll still buy fresh foods such as fruits, veggies, and dairy, since we started a new eating plan (more on that later), but we’ll also be eating heavily from our pantry.
No clothes buying. Even though I’m only buying clothes from thrift stores this year, I don’t need anything right now, so I’ll be staying away. (after one last possible trip today! wink)
No impulse buys at Target or Dollar Tree. Even though these items are cheap, they add up!
No buying toiletries such as makeup, shampoo, soap, etc. unless we actually run out of something. I want to use up all the excess we’ve got lurking under the bathroom counter.
So here’s my question for you: would you like to join me? If so, leave me a comment and I’ll send out occasional e-mails during the month to encourage you and help keep all of us on track. I’ll need encouragement, too, I’m sure!
Linking up: Living Well Spending Less
About Kelli Hays
We are doing a no spend February too. We are using the extra money to pay of a credit card, and save money for our trip to Disneyland next year. We can do it!
I need to do a no spend February too. We’re trying to get get/stay current on all of our bills and eliminate debt 🙂
I’m in! Only food but I’ll confirm after I talk to my husband 🙂
What a great challenge. I think Nate and I will join you!
I’m in! I guess I need to get your birthday I present today then:-)
This is our 5th year of a no spend February. I would love to do January too but we have 3 family birthdays (1 is a child) & I just don’t think it would be a true success. I’ll have to do a little bit of grocery shopping over and above fresh foods since we have been eating from the pantry for most of January (mainly because I’ve been too busy to go to the grocery store & my husband was gone for a week of it) but other than that it will just be routine bills. Our big challenge is that we have an out of town hockey tournament in Feb – but luckily we are able to use awards points for our hotel stay (2 nights) & the hotel offers a free breakfast. We still need to eat but can eat fairly healthy, inexpensive food at the rink. The big challenge is not going to Target (we don’t have one where we live) & Sports Authority (ditto).
Ok, I’m so in! February is a short month, so we should be able to do it right?! I hear ya with the HOA, and all the first of the year bills… so lets get going!