No Spend Month: 30 days to a bigger bank account, part 3

This series, by Denise T., originally appeared on Middle Path Finance.

No Spend Month, week 2

We are now two and a half weeks into our no-spend month, where we vowed to spend only $400 for all of November on everything we need, including groceries, entertainment, and gas.

This week, in some ways, has been a lot easier. Our super-frugality has become part of the routine. Cooking every night has finally become a habit, with the hubby remarking "that the best thing about this challenge is that there is always something yummy in the fridge."

I can deal with that.

Hubby has also stopped pouting. Not just stopped, but done a complete 360. Sunday, the start of week three, he said "You know, we should try to live on $600 a month, including bills, every month."

I almost had a heart attack. One, I never thought I would hear him say it, and two, for a hot minute I was really afraid I would have to live on $600 a month forever.

Now that we are deeper into the experiment, we have seen the benefits and started to experience the drawbacks.

Let's start with the positive. The house is cleaner. If you can't go out, you may as well vacuum.

Living in a clean house is fabulous, but having a fat bank account is even better. Usually, we save about 10 percent of our take-home pay every two weeks. But we managed to put 50 percent of our pay into savings this week, a real testament to the fact that we are living on a shoestring.

Considering the current economic and job scene, it has been really fulfilling to build up our cash reserves, and at the same time practice living on next to nothing. It's a valuable skill to have if you suddenly don't have a job.

Now to the drawbacks. We did spend more than twice as much the second week as we did the first, $118 compared to $46.

Here is where it went:
$90 for groceries. Half of this went to our Thanksgiving turkey and side dishes. The grocery store was selling turkeys for 29 cents a pound if you spent another $30, so we did the math and determined it was worth it to buy everything now, including fresh green apples for apple pie, cranberries, and of course, a 17-pound turkey.
$19 on gas. Lower gas prices were a real budget-saver here.
$5 for a replacement inner tube for our jogging stroller. It didn't seem fair for the baby to miss out on his daily walk just because we were trying to save a few dollars.
$5 on beers with a friend who came into town from Chicago. We can't just not visit with friends from out of town.

As a result of this challenge, I also notice I am doing things I have never done before, in an effort to save money. For instance, I took a calculator (to make sure I was on budget, to the penny) and a sale flyer with me to the grocery store. Now I wonder why the hell I've never done this before. I have also learned a valuable cooking lesson. If you have a bag of onions and a few pounds of potatoes, the sky is the limit.

For fun, we borrowed some DVDs from a friend and popped popcorn.

It wasn't all fun this week. Saturday was tough, because we had to turn down a dinner and drinks invitation to our favorite restaurant. It just wasn't in the budget. I'm sure we'll get over it, though.

Also, part two of the challenge was to try to lower our monthly bills. So far, I have only managed to shave $14 off of what we pay every month, by getting both my home phone and Internet with the same company. Maybe I can do better, like trying to cut our electricity bill in half.

But I think that is a challenge for another day.

This week, in some ways, has been a lot easier. Our super-frugality has become part of the routine. Cooking every night has finally become a habit, with the hubby remarking "that the best thing about this challenge is that there is always something yummy in the fridge."

I can deal with that.

Hubby has also stopped pouting. Not just stopped, but done a complete 360. Sunday, the start of week three, he said "You know, we should try to live on $600 a month, including bills, every month."

I almost had a heart attack. One, I never thought I would hear him say it, and two, for a hot minute I was really afraid I would have to live on $600 a month forever.

Now that we are deeper into the experiment, we have seen the benefits and started to experience the drawbacks.

Let's start with the positive. The house is cleaner. If you can't go out, you may as well vacuum.

Living in a clean house is fabulous, but having a fat bank account is even better. Usually, we save about 10 percent of our take-home pay every two weeks. But we managed to put 50 percent of our pay into savings this week, a real testament to the fact that we are living on a shoestring.

Considering the current economic and job scene, it has been really fulfilling to build up our cash reserves, and at the same time practice living on next to nothing. It's a valuable skill to have if you suddenly don't have a job.

Now to the drawbacks. We did spend more than twice as much the second week as we did the first, $118 compared to $46.

Here is where it went:
$90 for groceries. Half of this went to our Thanksgiving turkey and side dishes. The grocery store was selling turkeys for 29 cents a pound if you spent another $30, so we did the math and determined it was worth it to buy everything now, including fresh green apples for apple pie, cranberries, and of course, a 17-pound turkey.
$19 on gas. Lower gas prices were a real budget-saver here.
$5 for a replacement inner tube for our jogging stroller. It didn't seem fair for the baby to miss out on his daily walk just because we were trying to save a few dollars.
$5 on beers with a friend who came into town from Chicago. We can't just not visit with friends from out of town.

As a result of this challenge, I also notice I am doing things I have never done before, in an effort to save money. For instance, I took a calculator (to make sure I was on budget, to the penny) and a sale flyer with me to the grocery store. Now I wonder why the hell I've never done this before. I have also learned a valuable cooking lesson. If you have a bag of onions and a few pounds of potatoes, the sky is the limit.

For fun, we borrowed some DVDs from a friend and popped popcorn.

It wasn't all fun this week. Saturday was tough, because we had to turn down a dinner and drinks invitation to our favorite restaurant. It just wasn't in the budget. I'm sure we'll get over it, though.

Also, part two of the challenge was to try to lower our monthly bills. So far, I have only managed to shave $14 off of what we pay every month, by getting both my home phone and Internet with the same company. Maybe I can do better, like trying to cut our electricity bill in half.

But I think that is a challenge for another day.