Week One of No Spending

Week one is done!  Quite honestly, it wasn't that difficult.  What I realize is I don't buy a lot of stuff meant specifically for me, it's mostly items for the house and garden.  The other area we go a little bonkers is food.  Pondering how to shave off a little on everything without making the rest of the family feel like they are on the same restrictive journey as myself will be the challenge.  I stated at the beginning that this would be all about me and not the rest of the family, however, I truly believe we can cut back and nobody will be the wiser.

First, the house and garden.  We need absolutely nothing right now in this department.  What I consider house and garden items will be home décor, extra cooking utensil/cookware, etc..., flowers, garden art, basically extras that are not needed only wanted. 

The food, well, here's where I'll have to get a little more creative.  Last week I took Mr. Housewife to my favorite little store in Fall City and introduced him to my butcher hook-up.  Well it just so happens that Mr. Butcher had found some grass fed beef filet and New York steak for an amazing price and asked if we wanted any.  Mr. Housewife immediately said he did.  After offering to order extra for a few other people, then having a slow pick up and not wanting poor Mr. Butcher to get stuck with extra meat we ended up with not only what we had originally ordered but also extra from the other orders.  All in all we ended up spending a little over $500 in this meat, now keep in mind this was over 40 pounds of meat that will last quite a while.  But my point is, there are little things like this that pop up that I can't just put my foot down and tell Mr. Housewife "no, we are on a food freeze".  He would give me the stink eye and call for my "spa" reservation asap.  What I need to do is find the middle ground where everyone still feels satisfied and we aren't spending a mortgage payment just to feed our little family for a month.  I know I can do it, I'll just have to be mindful of what it is I purchase.

This coming week will be like a transition period for all these changes since I think if I just implement all my ideas at once it's going to be very obvious to everyone and they will complain.  Clearly I need to be a sneaky ninja with all this and do it without them even noticing. 

I posted on my Facebook page about getting organized in the laundry room and how it's going to be an important factor to all of this.  An organized home is a money saving home, yes, I have finally learned this simple lesson.  I assessed all the cleaning products (multiples of everything) and put them in the "cleaning product cabinet", I also found several of those items you need randomly and know you have but can never find (those little felt things that go on the bottom of chairs so they don't scratch your floors).  Amazing I tell you, it's truly amazing how crazy excited I was when this room was done.  The kitchen will be next, I guarantee there will be some multiples of items found as well as things I had totally forgotten.  It's going to take longer than the laundry room, but will be worth it.

Seatac Sally came over several weekends ago and helped me organize my stuff in the garage but I still need to tackle the other side with all the tools, hardware, etc.... I'm going to be so busy organizing I won't have time to even think about shopping!  This is going to be a successful week.  As usual, I'll post a daily blurb on my Facebook page about the day....  Until next week!

My Wallet is Closed....

Today is the first day of summer and the first day of my no spending for a month challenge.  For the record, it will only be me participating in this little experiment, not the twinadoes or Mr. Housewife.  But let's be honest, I'm the main spender in the home so this should be interesting.  Food, bills, necessities will all be purchased and paid, but all extras will be ceased. 

I've been thinking about doing something like this for a while, but just didn't feel like putting the effort out, but dang it, I'm doing it.  Yes, one month doesn't seem like a lot and I think that's why it seems doable.  Saying one year would start me out in a place mentally that I would already be thinking of failure.  At the end of the month I will assess what I've learned, what was really challenging and what I've gained (other than money).

One of the first things I did was figure out where I was spending the most money, and it was quite obvious when I looked over the bank statement..... Amazon!!  The daily deals, the suggestions they give from previous purchases, and the list goes on.  Another area I'll be avoiding are the endless emails I get alerting me of sales and deals.  Just this morning alone I deleted 17 emails that I knew contained deals, didn't even open them.

Boredom shopping, now this one is a killer for me.  Sometimes I pop into a store "just to see what they have" and the next thing you know I'm walking out with bags of stuff.  That is coming to an end.  Kind of on the same lines, all the little add on items I throw in the cart when I'm shopping for something I need.  Everyone goes on and on about shopping lists and sticking to them, well, I'm going to have to do that if I want to succeed.

Oh I won't lie, this is going to be a challenge, but what I'm really hoping is that it will show me that I can survive without all the extra shopping (yes, I'm being dramatic).  Money can be saved or put towards one of our large home improvements we want to do. 

Lastly, I'm curious if Mr. Housewife will notice the extra money we have in the account at the end of the month....  I'll be doing weekly updates on the blog and daily ones on my Facebook page.  Anyone else want to do this with me?