a no spend month? what? why? really?

sure, why not?  yesterday gareth and i stumbled upon a lady's blog that i found very interesting.  her family does an annual no spend month in july.  it's a pretty rad idea and so the month of october is no spend month for the sever family of branson.

just to clear up something, we are not in any financial trouble at all.  this is just a great way to sort of declutter ourselves as a family.  to be conscience in what we buy.  to really divide our wants and needs.  

the goal?  we have 31 days and $250.  cash money.  everything has to be accounted for.  what this includes:  food, entertainment, clothing, and misc.  it wont include bills, business expenses or gas.  however, we are only adding 100 bucks in for gas.  we want to keep track of filling up and stuff, so i guess you can say $350 for the month and include gas.  the reason why we had to add money for gas is that we will be driving back and forth to harrison, ar a bunch since drs visit for the pregnancy are more frequent.  and honestly we don't have the most fuel efficient vehicles.  but don't hate... we recycle... does that help out at all?

and to keep me honest, i'll be posting on this blog the expenses and the goings on with this experiment.  

i am very excited about this.  if you know me well, i am kind of a nut about money.  i've been called a penny pincher and other things like frugal.  i just like to have everything accounted for and often have inner battles about buying something that is $1.75.  hmmm, but gareth on the other hand.  he is a tad more... free with the dough.

this will be an eye opener and i hope inspiring to you guys.  i think a lot of people buy stuff to just be buying stuff.  i do that every once in awhile.  damn you target/tj maxx.  this month we'll see what we really need to buy instead of what we want to buy.  the hardest thing will be staying at home to eat.  since the 250 includes eating out and the grocery store, looks like we'll be cooking more.  i'll miss you thai thai.  the other stuff will be easy.  we don't leave the house and go out much like to movies and stuff.  so food is our main challenge.  esp for me.  so what if i sneak out for a big mac supersized meal.... i'm a big ol' pregnant lady.  this better work for me.  my biggest weight gain with lilli was the last month.  i just couldn't get full.  this month i guess i'll get full on homemade pasta instead of french fries.  i love french fries.  wait!  what have i done?  i can't do this!  see ya at my next update!