No spend month-June

I found an AWESOME blog called Small Note Book…I have been thinking of ways to save money and cut down on useless spending…

Kyle recently received a work phone so we suspended his service on his iPhone, it will save us about $40-50/ month, he can still use it with wifi just like you would with an iTouch. Basically they turned off the data package but we still pay the $9.99 / mo for service…another thing we are going to do is cancel our cable EEEK!!! not sure how I will live with out my DVR, but it is a good thing.

I still have about 15lbs I want to lose by the middle of July and this will be an incentive to get off my butt and work out (hopefully!!) so that will save us about $60 plus tax, in place of cable we are going to get Netflix, it is $9/mo and we can stream it live through our wii or watch it on the computer and get 1 DVD out at a time, everything else we watch is on local TV or I can watch my trashy shows on my computer, lol… The point of this is to save money, spend more time together as a family and de-electronic-ifi (is that even a word??)some…we focus WAY to much around the TV and aren’t spending enough time together…Kyle works ALOT (like 80-90hrs/ week) so the time we do have together is precious and guess where we spend 80% of the day? DING DING DING! In front of the TV.  I know personally I need to de-electronic-ifi (lol, something about that word is kinda funny)…I work from home and spend ALOT of time on the computer working…Starting June 1st I will be working semi-normal hours, lol which means going to bed at 1am instead of 3 or 4am!

Limiting myself to only being on the computer 6 hours per day, that sounds like alot but when you are a photographer it isn’t, it is no different then working an 8-10 hour day on…I am just doing mine at home. So I will actually work IN my office and NOT on the couch, while I am working in the office Gannon can be doing his summer workbooks and he actually likes doing them (but that is a WHOLE other post)…  

 

So these are the rules of the NO SPEND MONTH…(taken from Small Note Book)

Details:

We have a total budget of $250 to spend on anything we would buy for ourselves this month.

Included:

• Groceries & eating out
• Gas
• Clothing
• Household items
• Entertainment

Not included:

• Rent, insurance, and bills
• Health expenses
• Work expenses
• Savings and investments
• Tithes and gifts

 

What’s the point?

What’s the point of depriving ourselves? Shouldn’t we be able to enjoy life?

Yes, and that’s exactly why we do it. When we take a break from spending, we learn to appreciate what we have. The convenient restaurant dinners become a special treat, our favorite foods are savored, and every time I put gas in my car I am thankful to have the money to do so. We stop taking things for granted. (And let’s not forget all the money saved from not eating out or making impulse buys.)

Advice for getting started:

1. Leave your debit card at home and use cash, budgeting a certain amount for each week.
2. Spend as little as possible at the beginning while you’re motivated, so you’ll have more to spare later in the month.
3. Don’t eat out. One restaurant dinner could be your entire week’s grocery budget.

Every family has a different situation, so adapt this plan to best fit what your family needs.

Make your budget amount challenging, but still realistic. If you have a special event planned, just make an exception for that day. Maybe focus on one area of spending, such as not eating out or buying new things for the house. You’ll find plenty of things to keep yourself busy this month, without spending more.

So I will be posting back next Saturday to let you know how my first week went! If you wanna do it with me let me know and I can add a McLinky and you can link to my blog.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!

During the week I will be posting about budget friendly organics, free things to do with your kids this summer & budget friendly date nights…