Well, we're three days into our 30 days of nothing. I'm feeling good so far, and using this as an opportunity to recalibrate my relationship with spending money. All through the month of December, I kept a log of how much I spent, where I was, and how I was feeling. Not surprisingly, frustration led to increased spending on non-essential items.
December's kind of a jenky month to track expenditures, both because we have more money thanks to Christmas Bonuses, and because it's generally our biggest spending month. However, even considering those factors, we stand to save a heck of a lot of money this month. It's the little mindless purchases that really get me. They say that awareness is half the battle, and I can no longer feign ignorance.
I also realized that whenever a problem arises with something we use, although I do try to fix it myself (which often leads to even bigger problems... will I ever learn that I am just *not* handy?), I immediately start thinking about how much money it will cost to fix and/or replace the thing. I need to get out of that mindset and instead start brainstorming ways to live without. (Obviously this only works for certain things, and not true "needs".) Innovation is born out of necessity, so maybe this will be beneficial all around.
We've already made a few changes in how we do things. We spent most of New Years day working on reflections on 2009, goals for 2010, and creating an entirely new zero-based budget. Starting in February, we're also going to give the envelope system a try. I'm very curious to see how that goes.
I am also instituting a "want list", effective starting in February. Every time I'm out and see an item I "have to have", I need to write it on a list and wait one month before I can purchase it. The only exceptions I might make are in cases of one of a kind items that I may never be able to find again. If, after a month has passed, I still feel strongly about owning said item, then I can buy it. I'm thinking that strategy will effectively curtail impulse buying.
There are so many ways to go about this 30 days of nothing. Several of our friends are also participating, and it's really interesting to learn what they're doing and how things are going for them. For us, we've cut out all spending aside from:
Basic Groceries: I downloaded these awesome free meal planner / grocery lists and planned out our meals for the entire month. I will buy only the supplies necessary for making the meals we've chosen. We will not buy any snacks (aside from fresh fruits or vegetables) or impulse purchases, and will not stock up on any items that might be on sale (unless they are non-perishables that will be used in a subsequent week's menu). We have a budget set, but I will be trying to stay as far under that budget as possible. We will not buy any beverages aside from bottled water* (which, aside from alcohol, is all Jon and I ever drink) and soy milk for the kids.
Bills: Obviously we will continue to pay our bills, as usual. However, I will not be paying our heating bill this month. (A luxury we can afford because we always overpay and have an enormous credit...)
Subscriptions: We have kept our gym membership (although Jon cancelled his which lowered our overall bill), and though I could have frozen our Netflix account, I didn't do it in time and cannot justify stopping it after we had already paid for January.
We will not be spending any money on dining out (which is our third largest expenditure each month after our mortgage and groceries. We spend an obscene amount of money on food...), miscellaneous household items (toiletries, cleaning supplies, paper towels, toilet paper, etc.), entertainment, clothing, or other random expenses.
As for how it's going so far, we've mostly been at home these past few days. We did go to the gym yesterday, but made sure that the kids were fed beforehand. They still asked to eat at a restaurant, but were fine when we said no.
My two biggest temptations thus far were both e-mail ads: One for 50% off at a west African restaurant we've been wanting to try, and another one for 50 prints from some photo printing service for 50 cents (plus shipping).
How's everyone else doing so far?
*my phobia of tap water will not allow me to forego my dependency on $1 per gallon bottled water, but hey, everybody's got their something...
5 comments:
so far, so good! We're still a little stuck on the wine, Direct TV, and some other "built into our budget" non-essentials that are complicated to forgo for a month. Um, but so far it is generating discussion and togetherness. I don't know, really, if our savings will be very big, but I think our thinking will be altered.
Yeah, we're not giving up the monthly subscription non-essentials because in most cases, doing so would actually cost us more money in the long run (i.e. putting our gym membership on hold would require an entirely new registration fee). Our goal with those things is just to make better use of them and also appreciate the fact that we have them.
Even with all of those things, if my December numbers hold true (which I'm not entirely convinced they will), we stand to save more than the average annual per capita of India. Sobering statistics.
i'm really proud of you. besides, you're so good at thinking things through and planning ahead, you've already done a ton of work just evaluating why you spend and when. the biggest thing i learned was planning ahead saved a ton of money. not eating out sucks, but you will also feel more in control of your schedule and routine. i'm DYING to try the envelope system, but it feels so "dark ages" i can't get my head around it. still, i know that would be the best way to stick to our budget. our savings was WAY bigger than i thought it would be in my 30 days, which just goes to show how those day to day, little things stack up.
ok, needing to know what the 'envelope' is all about?
Meghan, the link in my original post goes into much more detail, but essentially, once you've figured out your budget for the month, you separate everything into 3 basic categories:
1. expenses that are paid via check or online. (For us, that includes our mortgage, insurance, bills, and subscription services)
2. savings. (also set up to automatically transfer money into various accounts on paydays, so we never even "see" this money)
3. cash purchases. (This is pretty much everything else, but we're planning to separate this money into 4 separate envelopes: groceries, brunch, miscellaneous household expenses, and fun money.)
So, each month (or each paycheck, as the case may be) you withdraw cash and allocate it to your envelopes.
The idea behind it is twofold: first is the belief that parting with actual cold hard cash is psychologically more difficult than just swiping a debit card. It may just help us to really give a second thought to any impulse purchases.
Secondly, you can't overspend. Once the money is gone from any given envelope, it's gone. You can always reallocate funds if there's some special purchase you want to make, but it really reinforces the concept that "you can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want". (But that's a topic for a whole 'nother blog entry... boy are you guys going to be sick of me talking about money by the end of this month!)
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