No Spend Month: 30 days to a bigger bank account, part 4

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

No Spend Month: Week 3

I had a dream last night that I got to eat out. Sigh. As much as I try to replicate our favorite restaurant meals at home, we miss eating out. It's been three weeks.

That means the end, It's almost here. We only have one week left of no-spend month, where we vowed to only spend $400 for all of November on everything we need, including groceries, entertainment, and gas.

But it's a big week, with Thanksgiving and all of the usually-oh-so-tempting Black Friday deals that I have to ignore because they aren't in the budget for me this year, no matter how cheap.

Our super-frugality has become in some ways routine, and in other ways, trying.  I miss good ethnic food.

During week three, we spent $86. Most of it, $55, went to groceries. We also spent another $18 on gas to fill up our second car.

How have we managed for this long on so little?

If you'd told me two months ago we'd be able to live on $400, I would have thought you were crazy. But by breaking our bad habits-- like eating out, all the time-- and being a little more conscientious, we've been able to reduce our expenses significantly.

So, if you are sitting at home wondering how we've done it, or planning your own No-spend month, here are a few tips:

1. Meat is a luxury when you are living on a shoestring. Most of our meals have been vegetarian, more out of necessity than desire. If we do eat meat, it's only what is on sale.

2. We've been borrowing DVDs from friends and from the library. And, we've been lighting a lot of fires and putting our feet up on the coffee table while drinking some of those bottles of wine we've had in the cupboard. That was the good part of staying home.

3. So far, we've filled up the gas tank of each of our two cars once. To save fuel, we use the small, compact car for any trip longer than 5 miles, and we run multiple errands on one trip-- no more running out just to get one thing at the grocery store.

I also recommend spending as little as possible early in the month, so that you don't run out of money at the end of the month. Our first week was our lowest-spend, at $46. We haven't been able to go that low since, because the pantry runs dry and the cars eventually run out of gas.

Beyond that, it's been just a matter of staying out of spend's way. No window shopping, no mouse finger dangerously close to clicking on the Amazon.com deal of the day. Although I do admit to Internet window shopping, I have yet to one-click shop.

 

Comments

[Whit]

This article is so inspiring! We've definitely taken a page from y'all and are realizing that life is actually less stressful when you go the no-spend route. It makes you realize what you really do need to be healthy and happy--and just how much you spend because you're truly pressured, bored or seeking to fill some other need. So far, it's proving to be a philosophical, life-relearning endeavor:-)