Our No Spend Month Failure

No Spend Month Failure

Ugh friends. I totally feel like a failure. I stated at the beginning of the month that we would be doing a no spend month. Right off the bat, I didn’t plan for the fact that it is gardening season and we would be needing to purchase things for the garden. For example, we have multiple garden beds that are rotting and needing to be replaced. So we needed to purchase wood and some tools. We also have a wedding to attend out of town so we will be purchasing some food and staying in a hotel. Not smart Amy.

Then the unexpected. My computer decided to go to the pooper last weekend. It was running so slow and would freeze all the time. It would take me 10x longer than it should have to do anything. Hey I’m a mom to a mobile baby… time is of the essence. Poor thing (I’m talking about the computer here) was 4.5 years old, which is like ancient in computer years. It was a hard hard decision that we spent hours at home and then hours at Best Buy thinking through. But a blogger can’t be a blogger without a computer. So we decided to purchase a computer. Yep. Worst no spend month ever!!! We spent a lot of money for supposedly not spending money. Luckily, we had been saving for a new computer and we ended up getting $235 off. Not too shabby.

Last night, hubby, baby girl, and I were swinging on the porch swing. Breathing in the warm summer like air and something unexpected came out of hubby’s mouth. “We can do a no spend month next month. We aren’t going out of town, we have no parties or get togethers to go to. So we should be good.” Remember this was the man that put up a good fight about doing a no spend month and stated he would only do it if I gave him $20. Haha. So I jumped all over that. We will continue to watch our budget and try not to buy anything extra the rest of the month, but we will also be doing a no spend month next month and not buy crazy things like a computer.

So please give me grace my friends for I’m no where near perfect and this no spend month was a total bust. Please forgive me. Amen.

2 Comments

  1. I try to do no spend months throughout the year and often fail as well. I typically find that January works well esp. after the excess spending of the holidays. I think it is easier to do a modified no spending which is more of a reduced spending- i.e. can only spend $x dollars/month vs $0. There are some things that we can’t give up like spending money on gas so instead we try to lower our gas bill and not drive as much if possible. Also, looking at your spending on groceries- do you stock up? It seems like there isn’t a lot of that based on what you were listing. I know that one can’t always stock up on fresh produce but if you can hit the sales on certain things, I think you would save a lot of money. While I don’t consistently buy everything organic, I try to buy as much as possible when it is on sale (esp. of grass-fed ground beef/organic chicken/veggies) and freeze what we can. This allows us to have a stocked pantry that we can eat from whenever we want. I will often peruse the ads for all the stores near me and buy what is on sale from those stores. I then try to plan my menu around that or what we already have at the house. You may already do that but it seems like your costs are really high compared to what you are eating. Good luck with the future no-spend.

    1. Thats a great idea Megan! We always try to budget but I really trying to see what we can live without or convince my hubby to live without lol. I do try to grab at least 2-3 of an item when I see it on sale but not full on buy 10 kind of thing. Which would be a better idea. I do a few of those thing, but I love the suggestions. Totally agree our costs are pretty high. Rumor on the street is we have higher groceries around here since we are kind of rural. Plus we shop at our local co op that is very expensive- something I’m trying to wean the hubby from. It’s amazing that I could be completely done with grocery shopping minus one or two things we need from there and we leave we 5 or 10 things. I’ve threatened that I’m no longer bringing him there lol. He’s my expensive kid wanting the cereal. Thanks for the comment and all the suggestions! Love it

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *