No Spend Month Challenge: July 2011

Last July, I did No Spend Month Experiment, and I am planning to on doing it again this year, hope you can join me in my adventure. We have reduced our wants and simplified our life a little but there is always a possibility of meeting our budget or not.

I will post my spending for the week, every Monday sometimes to calculate and write up a post about it.

What is No Spend Month Challenge?

Family: 4 people: Me, Zenguy, 6 Year Old R, and 2 Year old P

Budget for July: We can only spend $300 whole month

What is Included in $300.00 Budget:

  • Groceries
  • Eating out
  • Entertaining Guests and Friends
  • Clothing
  • Gas for cars
  • Any entertainment such as books, movies, dvds, museum etc
  • Household cleaning and toiletry items
  • Household repairs
  • Credit card bills
  • Any want items such as books, toys, snacks, magazines, gadgets
  • Gardening supply (if any)
  • Any Household items

What is not included in $300 budget?

  • Rent/Mortgage
  • Savings and investment (if any)
  • Health and doctor’s visit and medicines
  • Gifts, Charities (we do not want to skimp on it too much)
  • Job related expenses
  • Any unforeseen life emergency situation
  • Utility bills
  • Kids education related expenses
  • Any gifts card and cash gifts from family or friends
  • If we sell any household items on craigslist, it can be used for expense if needed.

No Spend Month Challenge Plan:

  • I have no set plan. Either I have become too lazy or too comfortable that I am going to take one step at the time.
  • No pre flling of gas in cars
  • No buying groceries from June budget

No Spend Month 2010 Challenge Recap:

If you want to check out the last year’s experience, see below;

No Spend Moth Challenge: Introduction $0

No Spend Month Challenge: Update 1 Money Spent 1st week: $104.73

No Spend Month Challenge: Update 2 Money Spent 2nd week: $33.72

No Spend Month Challenge: Update 3 Money spent 3rd week: $97.15

No Spend Month Challenge: Update 4 Money spent4th week: $18.50

No Spend Month Challenge: Take Away: Total Money Spent: $299.66

Would you like to Join the Challenge?

In past, I know many people who have done no spend month challenge in past such as Rachel, Sharon, Kait and Carla. I am not sure who else other than myself are going to do No spend month challenge. You are more than welcome to join and let me know, so I can add it to the post and more the merrier! Join in.

See Updates and Progress here:

No Spend Month Challenge Update 1

No Spend Month Challenge Update 2

No Spend Month Challenge Update 3

No Spend Month Challenge Update 4

No Spend Month challenge Take away (2011)

Zengirl

No Spend Month Challenge: Update and Take away from the experiment

Now that August is here, here is a recap of our No Spend Month Challenge with its final update and lessons and take away from this No Spend experiment:

This July we did No Spend Month experiment to see if our family of four, living in Northern California can survive with only 0: For groceries, eating out, cleaning, gardening supply, entertainment (books, movies, etc), Gas for cars, Any repairs, clothing and accessories and other items.

31 days

4 people

$300

To see recap on what is No Spend month and with Monday’s weekly updates on how we did, check out the posts below for more details.

No Spend Moth Challenge: Introduction $0
No Spend Month Challenge: Update 1 Money Spent 1st week: $104.73
No Spend Month Challenge: Update 2 Money Spent 2nd week: $33.72
No Spend Month Challenge: Update 3 Money spent 3rd week: $97.15
No Spend Month Challenge: Update 4 Money spent4th week: $18.50

Last week spending update:

Gas and Groceries only.
Total for last 5 days: $45.56

Here is total breakdown for the whole month to compare where did the money go?

Our Total expenses for the No Spend month Details:

Gas for both cars: $158.79
Groceries: $82.70
Misc: Rest of the budget
Total for the month: $299.66

As you can see, we barely made with 44 cents left over from our $300. Phew!!
Edited to add: We did not pre-stock gas for the cars or groceries prior the the no spend month experiment. Also all expense from cash and little on credit card are included here (even though CC bill be due next month).

Highlights and Analysis of this month:

  1. Gas prices are highest in the nation in Northern California, cheapest unleaded gas price is around $3.20 per gallon here. Except for our long Yosemite drive, we did not drive much and walked. Gas we had to fill in every other week, our normal gas expenses are much higher. This was consciously done.
  2. We had once had guests over for dinner and once we had to bring a potluck meal for 40 people. Our groceries expense is under $100, because we mostly used up our pantry, frozen and canned food supply this month. We still have a few cans and little frozen food left but most of food supply is used up. We were also were able to donate some goods that otherwise would have expired before being used.
  3. We did not eat out except for coffee and snacks once.
  4. We did not spend any money on repairs, clothes, cleaning supply or diaper this month as we used vinegar and cleaning supply from home for it. Zenguy repaired one chair by himself. And we used gift card (from last Xmas) to buy some diapers and we supplemented with cloth diapers for little P.
  5. I did little splurging like buying used books ($1.50) or used high chair ($10, actually needed) as Little P was growing out of his bouncer which we used as a feeding chair till now. Although we did not spend much money this month, we still were able to manage life and have fun.
  6. Both kids have no idea that we were in no spend month last month or had any budget issues. They were happy as usual. Our life style is mostly simplified anyways.
  7. Knowing we did not have money to spend, we stayed out of malls, bookstores, clothing stores and un-necessary grocery trips. We visited library more often and read books and movies from our own collection.
  8. We cleaned up our yard, organized our Gazebo, took out weeds and planted some more plants and flowers in our yard. We went for walking to near by parks, caught up with neighbors, watched movies from our small collection for entertainment.
  9. My breakdown point came around day 25th of this No Spend Month. I was feeling down, blue and bit childish as I wanted freedom to spend and not count everything before we buy stuff. It is like food fasting, which is good for day or few days but if you keep doing it always, it is not good for your health. Money fasting is similar in a way, too long of it might would have created deprivation.
  10. I learned a lot about myself and my family and our strengths and weaknesses. My family always supported me, even though this was my decision, Zenguy also curbed his spending and motivated me when I was bit down last 5 days. I also kept busy with my guest posts and commenting there to keep my mind off from my budget and it worked well.
  11. I also re-learned that we do not need money to be happy, we had a lot of good times during this month as a family. I got to see my creative side to make new meals from left over food. I was able to complete the No Spend Month challenge despite giving up hope during last week.
  12. There are many people who made this happen for me. I could not have done this challenge without support of Zenguy and my kids. I learned this concept of No Spend month, from Rachel of small notebook and I was honored to be mentioned in her post about this challenge  along with others What to eat on beans and rice budget, besides beans and rice . Also I got to know other ladies who were also in same journey and Sharon mentioned my update on her post Diary of No spend Month: day 19 too. Thanks Rachel and Sharon for the shout outs and support.
  13. I am thankful to Betsy Bargain , Vaishali and Ali sharing their money savings tips during this month. And to all my readers despite coming from various background supporting my challenge and commenting on update posts, kept me going.
  14. This challenge was not about winning or losing, this challenge for me was to make a conscious spending decision. I always thought of my self very frugal but this month made me realize I have quite a way to go and things to learn. I am more appreciative of people who live on very little every month, not because of any challenge, but because they have to.
  15. I learned that simplifying life and spending less has enabled me to stay home with both the kids and survive even with zero salary as Zenguy is between projects right now. Money may give us illusion of (temporary) happiness but happiness comes always from within.

These are my take away, analysis and lessons learned for the whole No Spend month Challenge. I am glad I did this challenge openly despite being scared of failing in front of others.

Your turn: What did you think of this challenge? Do you spend money consciously, regardless of how much money you have?

Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

No Spend Month Challenge: Update 4

This is our fourth week of update on No Spend Month Challenge that I am  sharing my spending on Heart and Mind Blog . Now there are 26 days down and 5 more days left to go in this challenge.

In this challenge, we have a budget for $300 for the whole month of July, that includes, groceries, eating out, entertainment, clothing and accessories, books, movies, gas for cars, cleaning supplies, gardening supply, any household items, and any repairs if necessary.

What is not included in this budget is rent/mortgage, utilities, phone bills, medical, insurances, donations/charity money, savings (if any) for retirement or emergency fund. We are family of 4, living in northern California where gas and groceries prices can be high.

If you would like to know more about it, check out my previous update No Spend Month challenge : Update 3

Where we are started last week:

We have spent $235.60 already from total of $300 budget. Can we make it?

Our saving budget strategies

  1. Use food from our pantry, freezer first: We have been doing this, week before this one, I cook a potluck meal for 40 peoples from our food storage. This goes to show, we had too much food in our pantry.
  2. Use up canned food supply : We have been doing this quite well on.
  3. Use dried beans and rice staples : As an Indians we do tend to eat lot of rice and wheat based meals so having dried staple to help us is a great idea.
  4. Cook leftover in to another delicious meal: I learned this from my grandmother and my mom, making something new out of leftover food, a wonderful ways to eat same food in new way.
  5. Cook more at home, eat out less: I love cooking so it has been easy but I love eating out, so it has been a challenge a bit.
  6. Use garden vegetables if any available: This time our garden plants have eaten up by neighbor’s rabbit, and other reasons so we have barely a few tomatoes grown, not enough to make even salad.
  7. Eat Vegetarian diet: We are all vegetarian, including kids so this helps in our budget a lot, as vegetables tend to be cheaper compared to meat. We are also partial vegan and eat organic food as often so this becomes an added cost to our budget but so far we are managing.
  8. Do repairs by yourself: So far nothing major needed a repair but Zenguy fixed a chair and he does minor electric and gardening repairs by himself, learning as he goes in the process. That has helped a lot.
  9. No new Must “want” stuff of us: This usually means books and movies for me, new gadgets and computer parts for Zenguy and Toys for R. Little P is the most content, maybe because he is only one. So far, we have survived without must want buying.
  10. Drive less: We do have 2 cars, but to save gas and environment, we combined to errands together, shop near by, and generally drive less to not only save money but also an environment for future generation.

What did we do this week?

  • We cooked at home as usual more. Chef R loves to help and makes a huge mess but I guess that is part of life.
  • This time we moved on to MJ’s other songs as we failed miserably to “Billy Jean” and moon walking. Our current favorite dance song is “Macarena” and “Black and White”, a song DVD we already have in our collection. So we can see, listen and dance. Sorry no videos, I always forget as I am having too much fun.
  • We went for walk in neighbor hood, caught up and chatted with a few neighbors. That was great, it always good to talk to people and get to know them more
  • We all saw a few PBS shows, (only TV we watch), and selected DVD viewing. We went to park and played.
  • We also did imaginary trip and mission to Venus, as our bed in reality a secret rocket! Gosh our house has so many talents which I did not know until R (my preschooler) pointed out to me.

How much we spend last week?

Previous update we had about less than $65 left for 13 days, and I was getting worried. We have been cooking at home past week and emptying out freezer, dried grains and beans staples along with canned food. So we did not need any groceries or gas past week.

I was feeling bit down about breaking point, so to cheer myself up I bought a couple of used books from friends of library sale, which helped my mood and as well as library too. And I got 2 great used books for $1.50.

I have been not really able to sell anything on Craigslist but we gave it away a few stuff for free, that felt good even though we did not make money. Lately people have been flaking, not showing up when they said they would and wanting items for almost free. We also bought high chair for Little P from Craigslist for $10.

Total expense:
Groceries, used hih chair and books.

Total Spent last week: $18.50 (This is our one of the best spending amount so far)

Where are we on budget?

We are at $254.10 from about 26 days of spending. We have about 5 days more left before the month experiment is over. I think we may just make it! Next and final update will be on next Monday with an overview of whole month and what we learned from it.

Check out my previous money and sustainability posts, which might be useful.

12 ways to help your unemployed friends and family
Celebrating meaningful birthdays (without money)
Irony of recession

How are you all doing? Are you spending consciously?

Check out final update here No Spend Month Challenge: Final Take away .
Image Source: weblogs.jomc.unc.edu

No Spend Month Challenge: Update 3

R and Little P having fun playing with Sand at near by Park:

This is our third week of update on No Spend Month Challenge that I am openly doing and sharing my spending on Heart and Mind Blog . Now there are 18 days down and 13 days left to go in this challenge.

Check out my previous updates to see our progress so far, here No Spend month challenge: Update 2

I am not sure how I will do this month or even next day for the total budget of $300 for the whole month. I sometimes do not know how each day will bring the challenge for me. Some days are so easy and other days requires more conscious effort on my part.

When I told Zenguy about the whole challenge, he did not know much about it but agreed to be on budget with me right away. Without his support I would be not able to do this challenge. As far as kids are concerned nothing much has changed. they still gets to do usual stuff they normally do and so do we, up to a point!

We did not stock up on gas or groceries and bought things normally as we do generally. During summer I am not teaching and R is at home more along with little P. Zenguy is searching for a project and meanwhile, we are living frugally yet still managing a little fun life despite the lack of budget. Here are some of the challenges and fun we had past week;

Some of the challenges

We had to go to a retreat gathering where we had to bring a potluck dish to share for 40 people. This time determined to stay in budget, I got creative and looked within my freezer and pantry for inspiration and there were plenty. I used up some of frozen food and pantry food to make hearty dish to bring to a potluck and it was a great success and well liked by everyone, including us.

Our indoor grill that we got as a gift in June stopped working, so repairing was not easy and nor was replacement due to our no spend month challenge. But when we mentioned it to our relatives who bought the grill, they said they still receipt and warranty for it ( less than 30 days purchase), so we got a free replacement from the company and they took the defective one back. If we were not doing this challenge, we might have bought new one without exploring other ideas.

Things we did to entertain our selves

All these things were fun and cost us nothing but little time and lot of mess to clean up later. But, it was worth it.

  • We cleaned up our front and back yard that we neglected for some time
  • We played dress up with kids (early Halloween)
  • We saw a free animal related show at the library
  • We made food we generally eat at restaurant and Chef R helped a lot
  • We went to near by park and played with kids
  • We danced to old Micheal Jackson songs and tried to do moon walking unsuccessfully
  • We saw kids shows and movies from our collection and library
  • I am reading books from my own collection, I like to re-read some of my favorite ones
  • We tried to repair one broken chair, when I say we, I mean Zenguy did it 🙂 I am not handy at all
  • I tried to learn sewing by reading a book from library (I am still clueless)
  • We have tried to make a game to see if we can see back wall of freezer by finding and using food inside it.
  • We actually were able to find some unopened boxed food to donate as we would not able to use it before expiring date.
  • R and Zenguy created story combining characters from toy story and cars (R’s favorite movies)
  • We saw our neighbor’s rabbit inside our yard again last week and fun giving her carrots and trying to help her find her home right next door. R and Little P were so excited, despite rabbit eating some of our new plants.

How much did we spent last week?

We did pretty well, from Last Monday till Saturday, we did not spent anything and I was quite feeling happy about it. I could have stretched buying to Monday afternoon and we would have been $0 for this week expenses. However this challenge is NOT for for vanity or showing off, it is all about conscious spending in our life. So we spent lot of money on needed stuff, all on Sunday! Here is the recap.

It has been over 2 weeks since we bought any groceries or filled a gas in our Van so  it was much needed. We needed fresh fruits, bread, Juice and snacks for the kids.

Gas for Van, groceries and light meal is what we spent money on this week.

Total Spent this week:  $97.15

As you can see, major expense in California is gas for cars and it is expensive and we are generally not avid drivers. Even though we do have 2 cars, we drive often close by and choose errands on same time to save gas and time both.  I guess eating out was splurge this week, but we had very light meal, snacks, our first meal out so far in 18 days.

Grocery bill is less, not because it is cheaper here but because we bought ONLY the necessary stuff needed and trying to use up food from our pantry and freezer first. Although our diet is mostly wheat and rice based, we have tried to eat varied food, and also eaten home made pizza, quesedilla, nachos,and pasta this month.

So far total amount we spent from July 1st-July 19th (afternoon) is $235.60, leaving only $64.40 budget for the remaining 13 days. Can we make it? I can not say for sure, I am going to try my best to stay under the budget. If you see our expenses, most of it for the necessity but very little, if any on thoughtless spending.

Some the tips we are using to save money:

  • Zenguy and I do not need any new clothes right now, we have enough,. R has grown taller so he can use new pants but I am looking for a deals before buying some. Little P gets to reuse most of R’s old clothes to save money. All of us have also newer clothes too but at home we are much relaxed.
  • Zenguy cuts kids hair at home, saving money. He gets haircut from students, so the price is much reasonable yet professional enough. I cut my own hair and do not need much beauty care as I am in to natural products using what we have at home.
  • I love cooking, so I usually cook at home but I also love to eat out, so we are trying to be more conscious about it. Zenguy is also helps and when I am breaking point, he makes his special chai at home or something special to cheer me up.
  • R and little P have plenty of toys and we keep some extra in storage to rotate when new toy itch comes around. They both are very good kids, so that helps too. They like natural playing, park and riding on Zenguy’s back more.
  • Using up food from our pantry, canned food and freezer before buying any more groceries.
  • Using books, movies and library for reading, music and watching movies, shows from our own collection, from what we have, what we can borrow
  • Write down every expenses every day, including any cents to keep eye on budget. We have been doing this for a few years and it really has a huge impact on our life.
  • Some times, when we think we need some item, we stop and ask do we “NEED” it or “WANT” it before buying anything.
  • I am terrible at using coupons but that is another great idea for saving money on groceries.
  • I make baby food for little P at home and buy little of ready made Gerber stuff. Little P is moving quickly into table food anyways, making it much easier to cook for everyone
  • We supplement disposable diapers with cloth diapers
  • We stay away from commercial outings such as malls, kids stores and hang out more at parks, library and our back yard. Imagination is great with kids, our bed becomes a rocket to fly over a Jupiter or our backyard swing becomes a steam engine train when playing with kids.

What would I buy if money was not an issue?

  • I would buy a walking shoes for me, as I have none right now. My old ones are donated as they were not better fit for my feet.
  • We would buy a router as our current router is so antique and keeps breaking out internet connection often, not a good experience when I am on blog writing a draft.
  • I would buy some pants for P, as he has grown since January and his pants are becoming a Capri pants.

My struggles (or being human with desire):

I will admit, yes I some times it is harder to do all penny pinching and feel like splurging a bit, But those moments are very few and when I am feeling down I remind myself why I am doing this and having a support from Zenguy is huge blessing. Having a bigger purpose or goal sure helps me. I take one day at the time and take it slow.

Check out next update on following Monday here No Spend Month: Update 4

I am sure we all like to save money and/or make more money regardless of how rich or poor we might be. How do you save money? What are your tips, struggles?

No Spend Month Challenge: Update 2


No money needed to enjoy this: Zenguy and R watching planes at San Francisco Bay

Our family is doing voluntarily No Spend Month Challenge in July. Actually No Spend month is misleading in a way, as it should be called minimum spending on bare essentials month, because that is what we are doing.

I first heard about No Spend July month last year at Rachel’s blog called Small Notebook and I have been hooked to the concept. Last year I did it unofficially, only for our eyes. Here is our journey of little financial adventure of No Spend Month in July for sharing with all of you.

Recap:

Our budget for the whole month is $300 for groceries, eating out, gas, entertainment and misc expenses. Other expenses such as rent/mortgage, utility, charity, savings and investment, and education and job related expenses are not included in the $300 budget. Thank god for that!

Continue reading →

No Spend Month Challenge: Update 1

No Spend Month Update 1:

On month of July, we are doing No spend month challenge, which actually means not spending anything except on few essentials. We have a goal of $300 per month on necessities and more. To find more details about it how we are planning to do it, check out my introduction post on No Spend Month challenge: July .

Continue reading →

No Spend Month Challenge: July

I have done one “no spend month” last July along with Rachel from Small Notebook, blog I admire a lot. However, I started off after one week in July and I was not blogging till end of July so did not share my findings here at the heart and mind . To see her story check out July – No spend month post here.

This year Rachel is not continuing with no spend month as they have achieved the spending balance in their life, I would have liked more of no-spend month as she is so good at explaining and motivating others but I do understand completely her reasoning behind it.

Continue reading →