No Spend Sunday...Because We Stayed Home!

The best way to not spend money is to not go anywhere so that's exactly what we did today.  There was nowhere that we needed to be and it is so rare that we do stay home all day that when hubby got involved in first one movie then the next we just decided to stay home for the  day.  While hubby binge-watched a few movies I baked cake.  Of course I also spent a lot of time online reading and came across this interesting site which lists loads of freebies and this blog where the guy did an "eating well on $1 a day for 90 days" challenge, which was an interesting read.  I hope you are having a great Sunday too!

Day 1 No Spend, 35 Days to Go

Day one of our no spend five weeks went great!  I cooked breakfast at home, made sandwiches to take with us to eat for lunch because hubby bowled today, then came home and made chili and corn bread for dinner.  For a little entertainment we headed over to the Pro Bulls event which was free.  Unfortunately we were too early to watch the bucking bulls event but we did wander around the Western Gift Show, caught these bull riders talking about the big event that would be held tonight, and watched a bunch of cute little kids ride the mechanical bull (they looked just as happy riding the bull as they did when it sent them flying off into the cushioned pit!).  Day 1 was a success :)

No Spend 5 Weeks...Starting Tomorrow

Hubby and I are trying an experiment starting tomorrow.  Each month we use hubby's Social Security check for our monthly spending money (for gas, groceries, entertainment, shopping, etc).  Each Christmas we send the kids and grandkids money for Christmas.  While we usually take some money out of savings, along with some of our regular spending money to do this, we are going to shoot for a no-spend five weeks, from tomorrow to the second Wednesday in December, so that when hubby's Social Security check rolls in on the second Wednesday of next month, we will have the entire check to send to the kids and grandkids.

With a little effort this will be totally do-able.  We have plenty of food to cook at home, we can skip shopping for five weeks and probably won't miss a thing, we can choose to do things closer to home for entertainment rather than driving all over the place to save money on gas, and we can skip trips to Costco and the Goodwill.  We will use only the cash we have on hand to pay for gas and limited perishable groceries, and we don't foresee any bigger expenses coming our way through the end of the year.

Cash flowing Christmas is the way to go and we can definitely reign in our spending for the next month to make this happen!

The Facebook Buy Nothing Project

First I want to say that I have been rocking my no spend challenge.  In two months the only thing I have bought was a pair of $10 bowling shoes (thanks to hubby who buys me coffee drinks whenever I am looking less than peppy...which is pretty often).  Although my no spend challenge is only mine to do (with my money; hubby has his own money and spends on whatever he wants which isn't actually very much, so far this year he hasn't made any purchases either besides a couple of restaurant meals, groceries and gas, helping a couple of the kids out, and coffee drinks for me.  We both have more than enough of everything and haven't seen the inside of a store other than for groceries in ages!).

And then today I was perusing the internet and saw an article on the Facebook Buy Nothing Project--it sounds like a cool idea (more info here).  People connect through Facebook which I have hardly used at all since the beginning of the year so I did go on to Facebook and joined the local group and liked their main page.  This sounds like an excellent way to encourage yourself and others not to spend plus share what you have or give away things to others who are trying not to spend so it in essence becomes like a cash-less economy kind of project.  Cool!

No Spend Update

It's the middle of February and I have yet to spend any money!  In fact, I just realized today that the few hundred dollars of spending money I put in my wallet at the beginning of the year was still there (a record, since I used to spend every bit of cash I had).  So far this is working out really well and even hubby has commented several times that he can't believe I haven't been spending like I usually do.

The reasons this has worked out so well are several:

• I took all of the shopping apps off my cell phone, tablet, and laptop.  No more DealNews, Tech Bargains, Amazon Deal of the Day, Steep and Cheap alerts, etc.  If I don't know what the great deals are, I won't be tempted to buy them.
• I really do have everything I need.  Clothes, yes.  Food, yes.  Shoes, yes.  Tech stuff, yes.  I would like a drone so my deal with myself is to get one after I am completely out of debt.
• Hubby is helping so much.  Any time we eat out, it is free with his casino comps.  Any time we go to the grocery store, he pays.  That is a big help.
• Speaking of stores, I simply don't go into them lest I feel like I want to buy something.  I did go into an REI a few weeks ago because I happened to be walking by the store.  Everything seemed so overpriced that I walked right back out.  We went to Ikea today because I was out of jam (my favorite is their organic lingonberry jam and buying food during my no spend year is fine).  We didn't even walk through the store, just went straight for the jam and straight out.
• I am keeping myself super busy so I don't go shopping just because I am bored.  I did the Washington list and then the Las Vegas list which were both many hours of work.
• I am pretty psyched because I have been able to pay down several thousand dollars on my debts so far this year.  I should be completely out of debt by the end of the year.  The thought of running up debt while I have been making such good strides at paying it down makes me stop and realize I don't NEED anything.
• Finally, a few months ago I realized how close I had come to having hardly any income coming in.  I love the freelance work I do but the lady I do the bulk of my work for (and get the bulk of my money from) came a hairsbreadth from being fired by her Board of Directors.  If she goes, I will most likely go to and that would mean I would have to get a "real" job and there is no way I want to do that so it just reinforced the idea that I need to be completely debt free ASAP.  Once again, I realized that buying stuff and expecting to pay for it with future earning is idiotic.  There is no guarantee of future earnings!