Have you all seen the No Spend Month that NWEdible is heading up for October?
The premise of the challenge is to set a budget for one month, not including your regular bills (mortgage/rent, utilities, etc.), that allows you to save a bundle of money by… not spending it. The budget should include money for food, gas and whatever household expenses you normally have. But this budget is radical. You are cutting your expenses way, way down. Down to nil, or as close to it as you can manage.
Like, instead of spending $750 on food for the month, you are only going to spend $120. Instead of racking up the miles in your SUV, you rack up the miles on your bike, because that gas costs money. Instead of getting coffee at the drive through, you brew it at home.
Then, at the end of the month, you have a pile of money that you saved. Maybe enough to jump-start that emergency fund or make an extra house payment, or pay off a credit card.
To join the challenge, you have to do three things: one, set the budget; two, track your expenses; and three, set a goal for what you save. It’s been a while since I’ve joined in on a challenge. This one seems a bit overdue for us. Doing a no-spend month is a great way to hit the reset button on out of control spending.
I read about the challenge over the weekend and decided to go for it. But I didn’t actually get off to a great start.
Yesterday morning, it started raining at 6:00 am and Rick wanted a ride to work instead of getting soaked on his bike. So I took him. The boys, used to going to the bakery on mornings we drive Rick, begged for pastries. I, weak from lack of coffee, gave in and spent $10 on the way home for buttery, flaky goodness. Later, as I was cleaning up the crumbs, I remembered it was October 1st! ARGH! It’s NO SPEND MONTH! $10 in the hole already.
It’s ok. The whole month isn’t shot because of one slip-up on the first day. I know we can make the ten bucks up later. We actually used to run a really tight ship around here. But as we’ve paid off various debts (two credit cards, a car loan and a student loan done! Woo!), we’ve gotten a lot more relaxed about our spending.
Our budget for October is $335. We are a family of five, and to be honest, I think we could go lower. However, we have a few commitments for the month already involving friends and family from out-of-town, that I just don’t feel good about backing out of. Even so, this will allow us to save $1000 this month.
I plan to put that $1k in a separate savings account towards an emergency fund.
Because I’m always curious how others come up with their budget numbers, I’m going to share mine more specifically with you.
For food, I know we can mainly eat out of the pantry and freezer, except for dairy and flour. So I budgeted $30 per week for food. This actually allows for some wiggle room, but I figure that’s a good thing. I’m hoping I can get some Halloween candy to give away out of this too.
For gas, I cut what we normally spend in half. This pretty much has no wiggle room, and I think it will be the toughest category for us. Especially if we get some bad weather. $60 is about a tank and a half for the month, plus the 3/4 of a tank right the 4Runner is at right now.
Our dining out budget would have been a zero for the month, but since I already blew that yesterday, I accounted for the ten dollars already spent. Otherwise, we’ll be cooking at home and Rick will brown bag it.
I budgeted $30 for Rick’s hair cut. He’s been putting it off for a couple of months and is getting pretty shaggy. When I proposed doing the No Spend month, his only request was an allowance for a hair cut.
E and H both just hit a growth spurt. H needs new shoes. I’m budgeting $20.
Now comes the previous commitment part. We had already committed to a high school football game (cheap), a double date (yay – it’s been so long), and a pumpkin patch (it is October after all). I figured $12 for the game if we fill the kids up before we go and bring snacks from home. I’m budgeting $50 each for the date and the pumpkin patch. That’s cutting it a bit close, but I really want to try to stick to it.
If you add all that up, it’s $362. I also have $90 in swim-lessons coming up for the kids this month, which Erica says is exempt from the budget. Together, that’s $973 less than our average monthly expenses. I wanted to make it an even $1000 in savings, so I’m going to see if I can make up that $27 somewhere.
I plan to keep track of how we’re doing and report here on it once a week.
What about you? Are you down with No Spend this month?
Please comment and tell me if you are going to join in on the challenge, what you are budgeting (you don’t have to get all specific if you don’t want), and what you want to do with your pile of saved dough.
The Lazy Homesteader 