No-Spend Month: February 2014

I’m guessing this title either excites you or makes you want to shudder.  My husband? THRILLED about this.  Me? Not so much.  Can you guess which one of us pays the bills?!  haha

An eternity ago Two years ago, in January 2012, we did our first-ever no-spend month.  It was a big success for our family, and you can read all the details about it here to see how it went for us.  We have some big financial goals this year {remember my word for the year?}, and we mutually decided to embark on another no-spend month for February. 

Why did we pick February?

- Shortest month of the year, CLEARLY. :)
- January, for us, involved traveling for several days and throwing Olivia’s 1st birthday party, so it wasn’t a good month for us. 
- We have nowhere to go and nothing big to spend our money on, so it felt like the perfect month for us.  Plus, having this month in the beginning of the year helps our year to start out on the right financial “foot.” 

What does this look like for us?

Well, for this month, we are only paying for the essentials.  For our family, that includes:

- Money we give to God {that money goes to our church, missionaries, and two children overseas that we sponsor}

-  Bills {mortgage, utilities, college loans, etc.}

- Gas

- Groceries

That’s IT.  NO FUN MONEY!

No $2 coffee on a rough day {who, me?! lol}, no grabbing dinner at Panera on the weekend {even though that’s still super rare for us}, no {GULP!} money spent thrifting – not even a dollar or two, and not even for the kids. 

Our debit card does not get used AT ALL, and besides the money I take out for groceries {we use cash}, our bank account does not get touched for the month. 

ZIP.

What will keep us sane:
- It’s only 28 days {thank you Jesus! haha}

- We DO plan on going out on February 15th, using a Cheesecake Factory gift card my in-laws gave us for Christmas that we saved for this very purpose

- The $5 I have on my Starbucks card right now, thanks to my Shopkick points, for a day or two I get desperate.  LOL

Caveats:

- Considering that Luke currently looks a little like a chia pet {and so do I, for that matter}, one or both of us might get our hair cut this month.  {This isn’t considered fun money, though, more personal/health care.}

- Olivia is right between shoe sizes and I may have to buy her a pair to get us through this month. 

On the positive side, I’m super excited to see how much money we can save toward our financial goal.  I’m also currently in the process of going through all of Luke’s old clothes from the attic in order to sell them to make money for an upcoming consignment sale in April {in other words, to roll the money I make right into the sale so that I don’t technically “spend” any of our family’s money there.}  My goal is $100. 

I’ll be checking in every week to let you know how it’s going!

Anyone else ever done this?  Would you do it again? Or would you do it RIGHT NOW?! :)