Recently, a podcast I listen to (Young House Love Has a Podcast) decided to do a no spend month. At first I thought it sounded crazy, but, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to give it a try.
I'm not a crazy spender, but...I can easily fall into the trap of adding a magazine to my cart at the grocery store, choosing to go out to eat when I don't feel like cooking, and let's face it, buy things I didn't need in the first place at Target.
We do fine financially, but I want to re-train my brain to respect our money more. We are approaching house hunting and I'd rather save money to put towards new house things than random purchases.
What's on the No-Go List:
-Books/Magazines (read what I already have/go to library)
-Art/Craft supplies (I have plenty, exceptions only for paid commission work)
-no pens or notebooks
-Zero Trips to Target without Ben (Yikes)
-Zero purchases on Amazon (Yikes)
-limit eating out (need to add more quick meal ingredients to the fridge/pantry)
-no clothes or shoes
-no home decor
-no make-up (except mascara if I run out... that stuff dries out so quickly!)
-no skin care unless something runs out completely
-no entertainment (itunes, movies, dvds)
-Starbucks/other coffee shops
What's on the exceptions list:
-gifts for any celebrations (we have grad parties coming up)
-Quilt Shop road trip with mom (have already set a specific budget for this and was planned prior to deciding to do this and it's for my birthday)
- toiletries if they run out (shampoo, toothpaste)
-medicine (allergy season y'all)
-eating out if invited by friends
-household necessities, but only if what we have runs out
-anything that I have a gift card for
What I'm hoping to gain:
-More time. Shopping pit stops add up and sometimes one trip turns into another.
-less stuff cluttering up our apartment - we are potentially packing it all up in a few months - don't need to add more stuff to move!
-an appreciation for what I already have
-losing the fomo that sometimes causes impulse purchases
-being aware of how I spend money and how I can be even more respectful and responsible with our finances
It ain't going to be easy. But, I hope it's going to be a good learning experience...so no more Target runs until May 25!
