Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! What a great time of year to start fresh. This month we are focusing on getting our house and our budget back in order. First I’m going to share our budget adjusting ideas.
After the slew of holidays and travel, an unexpected car vs. deer situation, and a few other hiccups we are now in need of a budget make over. After much research and tip-reading, we’ve decided January will be a no-spending month. If you haven’t done any research on no-spending months, I highly suggest doing so.
Our no spending month will consist of the following rules:
• Pay all bills: mortgage, utilities, credit cards, etc.
• Ok to spend money on: doctor appointments, diapers, gym membership, etc. as needed
• Only grocery shop for essentials: produce, milk, eggs, bread, etc. as needed no extras
• No extras such as: dining out, Starbucks, junk food, toys, clothing, home décor, cleaning products, impulse purchases, etc.
Now to get through an entire month of not spending any money, which will be difficult, we are hoping to accomplish the following:
• Declutter: cleaning out closets, toy room, basement, etc. collecting items to sell, consign, or donate (I’ll post more on this later)
• Spend 4 weeks deep cleaning: doing all those things that never get done by knocking one out each day (again, I’ll post more on this later)
• Finding more things to do together: things that don’t cost any money like going to the library or using our gym membership (again, I’m promising more information later)
• Using up food storage: we can’t possibly fit another thing in our freezer or pantry, yet I continue to shop every week… why? Who knows but we will be using up every little thing
More importantly with the habits we develop during this no spending month, I’m hoping these will help me to:
• Stop eating out every Sunday after church (save us $100/month)
• Only shop for items on my list at Target (save us more than I’d like to admit)
• Stop impulse purchases (save us $100/month)
• Stop buying coffee (me) and energy drinks (husband) on the go (save us $50/month)
• Get in the habit of waiting to make a purchase such as a small kitchen appliance or new coat (save us $50/month)
With the money we save this month, we plan to:
• Pay our $500 deductible for car accident
• Purchase necessary new tires for one of our vehicles
• Pay down credit cards with the balance
Wish us luck! I'll update on our progress later.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Comugnero Silvana / adobe.