Week 4 - NO SPEND MONTH

Hooray! We made it. Well this week we spent $49. So it looks like we did go over budget by $5. Not too bad. Mike came home this week and said that he needed a pizza night, after the crazy stressful week he had how could I say no. We looked through our ads and found the best deal $22 on pizza which was half our amount that we had remaining for the week.

Total spent for the month of February $255. Not to bad for a month.

Just a reminder this amount didn't include medical expenses, insurance, and other monthly bills. However, it did include gas, groceries, and all household items.

To see more information on where I got the inspiration: http://smallnotebook.org/2008/07/01/july-is-no-spend-month-whats-it-about/

Good luck to all those that are willing to try the rendition of "NO SPEND MONTH."

Week 3 - NO SPEND MONTH

Three weeks down only one more to go. This week we did a lot better. We only spend $56 this week. Half the budget was spent on gas this week.

The budget has been going pretty well this month. I can't believe how much my habbits at the grocery store have changed. I have also learned to use items on hand to prepare my meals rather than buying stuff. One thing that I struggle with is trying to decide what to fix for dinner. Many nights I would come home from work and not know what to make for dinner so Mike and I would just go grab something quick. Don't get me wrong there have been many times this month that I haven't wanted to fix dinner and wished I could go grab something or just pick up a meal at Costco.

A total spent this month $206 and only $44 left for week 4.

Grant's New Discovery

AIRPLANES

Since we live so close to the airport we have so many airplanes fly above our house. Grant now knows the noise an airplane makes and will look in the sky to see if can find the plane. As soon as he spots he points to it and tells me about it. I am not sure what he tells me about it but sometimes it sounds like he is saying "What's that?".

Mike and I now make it a point to show Grant all the airplanes. He loves it because he likes to point them out. I think in the time it has taken me to write this 4-5 planes have gone over head.

Along with the planes Grant has also noticed the birds. I guess they look like mini-airplanes.

Kids are great. What would we do without them. Grant makes me and Mike smile and laugh daily. He is just starting to learn so much and is starting to understand what we are telling him.

Week 2 - NO SPEND MONTH

We have made it through another week of our NO spend month. However, this week was kind of tough. Grant was sick with Hand, Foot and Mouth. He didn't really want to eat anything that we offered. So Mike and I both made a trip to the grocery store to find items that he might eat. I bought jello cups, yogurt, applesauce, and strawberry applesauce and Mike got some bagles, mac & cheese, and a bunch of other things hoping Grant would eat them. We were going to try anything to get him to at least eat a little bit to keep him hydrated.

Well, we pretty much blew our grocery budget this week between the snack items and a couple of bottles of medicine for Grant. We spend a total of $49 just at the grocery store. Mike also filled up his car this week which was $30. Since it was also Valentines day I made dinner at home and then we went to the movies. We did have passes to the movies and a coupon for free popcorn. I did end up buying a drink at the movies which was crazy.

So it looks like we spent a total of $83 this week. It was definitely more than I wanted to spend, but we just have to be really carefully the next two weeks.

Total spend for 2 weeks $150 - remainder for the month $100.

Week 1 - NO Spend Month

We are through our first week of our STRICT budget. I think it went pretty well this week. However, we did spend $67. Now don't freak out because $40 of that was diapers. I did look into buying a smaller pack of diapers but couldn't justify buying them because the cost per diaper is so much more. I had Mike make the dreaded trip to Costco just to buy diapers. I wasn't sure if he could resist the muffins or the other great things Costco sales. However, to my surprise he just bought diapers and grapes.

I did go out with some friends for dinner this week but I made sure that I bought the cheapest item on the menu which was just the soup and salad which is what I wanted in the first place.

We did pretty good on our meals this week. I had quite a few vegetables left over that I didn't use the week before. I already had meat and some frozen vegetables in the freezer that were part of my normal buying for January. We have lettuce in our garden right now and we should be getting some peas and some beets later this month.

Once we decided that we should try this our first instinct was to stock up on items. I tried really hard not to stock up on items when I went to the grocery store. I bought the way I would normally buy. I always buy my meat and chicken in bulk so I usually have enough to last me a month or longer thanks to our second freezer.

Week 2 I think might be harder because it is almost time to fill the cars with gas and I may feel the need to do a big grocery store trip even though I don't need it.

Stay tunned for more adventures.