1. The spending freeze lasts from April 1-30.
2. The freeze obviously does not include monthly bills or necessary expenses such as groceries and gas. It also does not include expenses related to the sale of my house or my friend's wedding. I am the maid of honor and I am in the midst of bachelorette planning and dress fitting time.
3. No outings that are not already budgeted for (unless someone else is footing the bill). These are April 5, 12, 22, and 26. I will also have a budget for each of those outings and will need to stay within it.
4. No shopping other than groceries. This includes Amazon (kindle books) and iTunes. I also have a set budget for groceries that I will stick to.
5. No ordering in food and calling it 'groceries."
6. No coffee I don't make at home or get free at work.
7. Post my results May 6. I promise I'll be honest.
Here's how I succeeded:
- I stuck to my pre-made lunches and cooking at home for the first two weeks.
- I steered clear of all retail temptations for the first two weeks.
- I did not buy any new books for my Kindle (instead, I focused on clearing out the ones already on there).
- I kept a modest budget for the pre-planned outings.
- I did not order in food at all during the month.
Here's how I failed:
- There were a few unplanned social outings that popped up.
- I bought the new Eric Hutchinson album. I wanted to be familiar with the new tunes since I'm seeing him this weekend.
- I had a bad few weeks at the end of the month and I went to my comfort tool -- shopping. Sometimes I can wander and not buy anything, but I ended up buying a new shirt ($8) and a new workout tank ($14) as well as two new pairs of shoes ($40 total).
Perhaps my rules were a bit too strict. a bit too lofty. Or maybe I'm just not very disciplined. Or it could be a combination of both. And it probably is.
Even though I didn't get an A on a month of budgeting, I'm not giving up. I can't. I need to get better about my spending, especially with some of the things I have going on right now. I will be attempting a no-spend June, as I think I saw a few others mentioning that. Practice makes perfect, right?
Practice does make perfect - I think I didn't do well this month because I wasn't saving specifically for anything. When I've done no spend months with savings/debt goals in mind, I did well. It was a challenge for myself. This was too vague of a "just don't spend" to be meaningful to me.
ReplyDeleteI think you did well!
I feel like this is exactly how I would do. Start off strong and then slip up a little bit towards the end! I still think you did great, it's not like you went out and blew a ton of cash, so props to you!
ReplyDeleteGirl, you did fantastic! It takes some getting used to. Thanks for linking up with me and Steph!
ReplyDeleteI had several unplanned outings too, which through that budget out the window in the first two weeks. But I tried to reign it in afterwards! I can't believe you didn't order in once- that's awesome! I order in usually when I'm too tired and/or lazy to cook. I'm going to try to stay on this watch for the month of May and re-assess the budget - practice definitely makes perfect!
ReplyDeleteHey, if we only set easily attainable goals, we might never get anywhere, right? I think you get an A for effort!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you did as much as you did is definitely something to celebrate!
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