Last Week’s Total: $216.03
$7 – Parking at the county park when we went swimming
$1 – Parking, Nick’s second job
$46.09 – Tank of gas
TOTAL: $273.12
REMAINING: -$23.12
Well, we went over. For the first time ever, I blew through a No Spend limit. And it wasn’t the kids presents that did it either – it was a tank of gas purchased on 7/26 that pushed us over the edge. I could have gotten sneaky and gone for a $10 fill, leaving myself just enough in the tank to eek through the month and I probably would have made $250. But that just seemed like gaming the system.
Really, this exercise is about values – identifying them and spending and saving in accordance with them. And making two trips to the gas station instead of one in order to win the No Spend ego prize just didn’t seem like it was in keeping with our values.
So even though we are over, and with a few more days to go, I think we did really well. Basically, the budget breaker this month came down to the strawberries. I spent about $100 on strawberries because it was a now-or-never situation. Now, just a few weeks later, our local berries are done. If I wanted local berries in the freezer I had to buy when I did. So, even though in retrospect that purchase doomed our self-imposed budget, it was the right thing to do.
How are you doing? Has this exercise allowed you to save money this month? Has it been harder or easier than you expected?
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It sounds like you really worked it hard, and though you missed the mark on the budget dollar amount, you certainly met it in spirit and made a good choice in going for the strawberries now so you can save later.
I recently had my 18 year old godson move in and am having to totally rework my budget. More is going to go out for utilities, but hopefully, not too much. Food is the huge budget crisis. He can eat his weight in food. I primarily have healthy food in the house, but the few lingering "junk" foods (chips, raviolis, corn dogs} have pretty much all been devoured. A friend of mine with three grown sons gave me some tips, which I will put into action. I knew ahead of time it was going to be a challenge, but, oy!
Nibbles – on the plus side, 18 year old boys are strong and very good for garden labor! Set him to work building raised beds, and grow a lot of potatoes to keep him full. 😉
We took a ten day challenge of no spending. http://whatifitistoday.blogspot.com/2011/06/day-10-game-over-i-win-i-did-find.html
The only thing we spent money on was some house paint for the fascia but that was only because we had a housepainter visiting us for a few days. It was a good test of what we were able to provide for ourselves with the garden and what we had on hand. Whenever we do buy things they are on sale, so even though we were depleting our supplies we purchased them at great prices.
You've inspired me!
http://krazoacres.blogspot.com/2011/08/august-of-austerity.html
Thanks! Well, I say "thanks" now…..let's see how I feel Week Three.