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Saturday, February 1, 2020
No Spend February
I know this is a much more popular concept in November or whatever, but I've decided to go the month of February spending nothing extra.
I'm usually reallllyyyyy good about watching my budget and I even worked with a life coach in creating and tracking my budget after moving out on my own last year. I won't lie, Amazon Prime got the best of me through the holiday season. Anyone else?
The plan is to remind myself I don't need to reward all good behavior with things for my kids. That I have more than enough in my closet, my home, my pantry. And to get a handle on spending in general. Again, I'm not in debt or living paycheck to paycheck, but in the past I've had a tendency to spend and buy. Looking back, I was filling a void, but I definitely don't want to fall into old habits.
So here is how I'm doing it:
I've already purchased my kids' Valentine's gifts. I did this to 1. truly go into the month without a need to buy a gift and 2. so that I can avoid stepping foot in Walmart this month.
I have credits in my Dave & Buster's account from the first time we went 2 months ago that I plan to use to celebrate Valentine's Day with the kids which will keep me from spending new money on another experience.
I am not purchasing anything from Amazon Prime. Not one thing.
I am giving myself $200 in cash to use for groceries throughout the month. I really want to see how much ends up in my cart that doesn't belong there and try to use up what is currently in my pantry. I have a tendency to stock my pantry when I find things on sale which is a great tactic, but I do it a little too extreme. I grew up in an area where we literally had no grocery stores and had to travel 30-40 minutes and do grocery shopping once a month. Now I live in an area where I have about 10 different grocery stores within a 5 miles radius. No need to stock up all the time. Again, trying to break old habits. Also, I want to focus on meal planning and this budget will require a plan. Let me know if you'd like to hear the plan each week!
I did give myself a $200 budget for my bathroom renovation and $300 for my bedroom. The bathroom is just about done and is below budget. My bedroom only needs a few more things and is still significantly below budget. Some of those project materials have already been purchased so I will focus on those for the month and then if I find a chandelier I'll go for it. I've found myself getting a little excited with the home remodel bug so I need to slow my roll and stop adding things to my Amazon cart before I finish the projects I've started. No Spend February will force me to do that.
Have you ever gone a month without spending? How did it go?!
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