No Spend January
I’ve seen a lot of people doing “No Spend” months. This is a concept based upon Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace courses, where you put all your extra money towards your debts, rather than spending it on stuff, in order to get debt free faster. We have followed Dave Ramsey for 8 years, and yet still haven’t been able to get debt free, because our income just barely covers our main expenses, let alone be able to save for the emergency fund or have extra money for our debts.
I thought that we would attempt a “No Spend January” in order to see if we have any extra money left over at the end of the month. This means that we don’t spend ANY money on anything frivolous. No eating out and only spending money on necessities. If it’s not in the budget (bills, food, gas, insurance, ect) then money doesn’t get spent on it. So far we are 6 days into this, and already struggling some, because I didn’t budget for a few things that I found out recently that we do actually need, so I’m in the middle of rewriting the budget to try and fit it in. I also spent $17 more on food for this next week than what I budgeted for. I’m trying hard to get our weekly food budget down from $130 a week to $100 a week.
This is quite difficult for a family of six, with 2 picky children and 2 vegetarians in the family. For every meal, I have to fix at least 2 separate meals. When I fix food, I’m trying to get it so that every meal has at least 1 thing that each person in the family will eat, but sometimes, it’s not possible when I’m basically trying to find new ways to fix rice and beans. This means that I have to have fallback items available for whoever will not eat what I fix.
In addition to that, some of the kids have successfully lost all the socks in their drawers, even though a month ago everyone had at least 10 pairs of socks. So I have got to add a clothing category to this month’s budget, even though when I wrote the budget, everyone had everything that they needed.
This is part of the issue we have every month when I write out a budget. I will try to think ahead, but then as we get into the month, unexpected things come up and I have to find ways to rework our budget to cover unexpected expenses, that would otherwise end up going into an emergency fund at the end of the month. I’m so tired of living paycheck to paycheck and want to become more financially independent. We will see how the month goes. I will try to provide updates in this post through the month!
Jan 9 UPDATE:
At the beginning of the month I realized that I had to almost immediately adjust the budget for unexpected necessary expenses. At the beginning of this week, I went to Walmart to take care of those expenses, however, ended up spending extra money on new clothes for the kids. Walmart total came to $47 when I budgeted for $30.
I also had to take my grandmother out and we stopped at the dollar store while we were out. Even though I budgeted $7 for the dollar store for a few items that we needed, I ended up spending $15. Not a huge amount, but still more than what was already in the budget.
On January 8th, I successfully saved $3 by avoiding going into Speedway for a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos that I was craving at the time! Again, not a huge amount, but a savings anyway! I’m back to my normal routine now, so hopefully things will get better as we go through the month. The one thing that I’ve learned (and yes I’ve said this to myself before) is that the best way to avoid the temptation of spending is to avoid going into the store. I’ve adjusted the budget to account for these spending errors and it’s still early in the month so I can still recover from this. So far this month, after husband’s paycheck this Friday, we will have already brought in more than I originally budgeted for, so I will be able to rework the budget Friday! Hope the rest of the month continues to go well!
Thank you to all those who have commented on this post and are helping to support me. It’s helping to keep me on track! More updates to come as we go through the month. Keep your eyes open for them!
January 14 Update:
We are now 2 weeks into our no-spend month and it’s getting easier to say no to my sudden urges to go out and buy things. I’ve successfully saved $100 so far, though some of that may have to go towards rent this month if my husband doesn’t start getting more hours.
I am still having trouble getting my grocery bill down to $100. Friday’s grocery bill came to $148. Some of it wasn’t really necessary foodstuff, but things that were on sale that I wanted to stock up on. If food prices didn’t keep going up, it might be easier to avoid the extra spending.
We had no emergency spending last week, so I’m happy about that. I’ve also learned that it’s a lot easier not to spend if you just don’t go out. If I do have to go out, I have a list of what I need and am working on sticking only to the list. However, I prefer not to go out, that way I don’t have that temptation. We didn’t go out to eat at all last week, so that was $50 saved there! Trying to stay on track for the rest of this month. 3 weeks to go!
Jan 21 Update:
It’s getting harder to get through the month. I actually did spend a little more than what was budgeted last week, because I forgot about having to take my oldest to an appointment in Cincinnati to follow up and get more meds for her headaches. So I ended up spending the money that I’ve saved up to this point for that. Groceries still came to $138 this week, so still having trouble getting groceries to $100 a week. Still don’t have the money for rent this month (was due yesterday) because income has been short.
I am keeping away from all other stores and I’m no longer tempted to stop and get chips after my workouts at the Y. At least I have that going for me. I will eventually have to replace the windshield on the car, because as we were going to Cincinnati, a rock flew up and hit it, causing a nice little dink that expanded into quite a big crack by the time we finally got home. That will be in next month’s budget (I hope). I’m going to try getting through the rest of the month without spending anything not already in the budget. I’ve also already been working on taxes and as soon as I get the W2 to verify the amounts, it will be ready to send in! I really really need that money right now, not to spend but to get things done that have to be done around the house.
I need to keep up to date with your journey of this. I’ve spent all day budgeting our money until the next pay day, and really want to try to achieve lots of ‘no spend days’ within this month. Unfortunately (well not unfortunately) it’s my husband and eldest daughters birthdays so no spend January is pretty no go for us but trying a strict budget month. I may give February a good as there are no events in there for us. My lifestyle is a lot like yours (sounds like) with not having too much left over to save and also wanting to get more financially secure. Let’s hope we can support one another in this year!
I would love to help you out, and I can definitely use extra encouragement. I’ve budgeted for 8 years, but it’s very hard to stick to the budget. My daughter’s birthday is also at the end of January, however, I got her main birthday gift on Black Friday and wrote into the budget the money for her other gift, and my grandmother is having her party, so no extra spending there. Budgeting for us is a necessity, but also hard because my husband’s income isn’t stable. One week we may get $300 a week and the next week, we may be lucky to see $200. So I have to kind of guess, I have always based it upon the previous year’s income, but that got us in a lot of trouble last year when my husband only brought home a quarter of what I expected him to, so this year I’m playing it safe and under budgeting based upon what he brought home in previous years. So for January, last year he brought home $800 for the month, so this year I’m making the assumption he MIGHT bring home $600 and I budgeted based on that amount instead of using the $800 number. This has caused a huge issue though, because our rent is $500, which leaves us with $100 for the rest of the bills. I’m using my daughter’s child support for food for the month, which I hardly ever do. That gives me $300 this month for food. However, he’s already brought home more than $600 for the month of January, so I do have a little extra to play around with. But there is never a guarantee there, so I’d rather play it safe! I’ve also decreased the amount of taxes coming out from his paychecks, because we always get a lot back at the end of the year. Even though it’s nice to have all that in one chunk, it will be more useful through the year. So where half of his check was going to taxes (and bankruptcy), they should only be taking out a quarter of that this year. I’m hoping that will help some too!
this sounds intense! I’m looking forward to see what the results. I’ve seen it with single people but I imagine it’s very hard with a large family. Good luck!!
It is hard, and it’s the first time I’ve truly attempted a no spend month. There are months I’ve thought about it, but was never in the right mind set. I’ve already had a couple slip ups, but they were early in the month and I’m back on track now. And yesterday, I was proud of myself for ignoring my desire to stop at the gas station and pick up a bag of chips while I was out. I told myself that if I really wanted them, I’d go back and get them when I took my son to school…I never went back! Success! I just have to keep that mindset the rest of the month… and IT is hard!
Budgeting is hard, especially as a family of 6 I can imagine. We have always had to budget and get by. The biggest one is food, i have got that sussed now. I hope you manage to do it and look forward to the updates
I’m trying to get our food expense down from $130 a month to $100, but it’s not easy because I have some picky children and almost always have to plan out 2 and sometimes 3 meals at supper. Since 2 of us a vegetarian, meat isn’t a huge staple in our home, but I do sometimes have to add it to some things to keep the meat eaters of the family happy. I am trying though and have learned that the easiest way not to spend extra money, is to not go into stores. I am proud of myself yesterday though, I was driving by the gas station and was wanting some chips. I didn’t stop telling myself that IF I still wanted them in a couple hours when I took Kyle to school, then I would go get them. I never went back, so I feel like that was a success on my part. I just have to keep that mindset the rest of the month now.
Budgeting and sticking to it is so hard! I think no spend january is a good idea – at least you will be consciously thinking about not spending!
You have to consciously be aware about not spending all the time. You have to stop and ask yourself whether what you are wanting is a need or a want. If it’s a want, then you have to allow yourself time to process how badly you want it. Do you want it more than you want the financial freedom that you are working towards. I have been budgeting for 8 years and still struggle when it comes to sticking to the budget.
I’d never heard about this, so thanks for sharing !
I think that sort of challenge is most difficult when you have kids, since they don’t always understand how things work, how much things cost and what’s classified as a necessary item. Well done on trying to provide for everyone, and I hope everyone in your family realises the efforts you make for them. Good luck for the rest of January !
Thanks! It’s really hard when you have kids! Even though my kids are learning about money and working for what you have, they still don’t completely get it. I’m hoping that as they get older, everything we have been trying to teach them clicks!
It’s hard! I totally get that! I went back to school after I got divorced because I wanted to make sure I never ended up in the situation where I cannot support myself. Fast forward 15 years and I am a bachelor prepared nurse RN/BSN, but I owe so much money in student loans I feel like I’m sinking! Add to that the parent plus loan I took out to get one of my 3 kids through collage……
I’ve remarried and my husband and I do well…. on paper, but we came into our marriage already well established so I pay my bills and he pays his (he’s the saver- has almost no bills). So for my share – that I pay, I feel like I can never get ahead! I need to get more serious about cutting the unnecessary items!
Poshmark & Mercari are great places to sell clothes – or items you no longer want/need. That might be helpful to get a few extra $$ each month?
I will look into it. I’m also getting ready to study and become a travel agent. I’m looking for any ways that I can work from home, until my blog gets better established, then I hope to monetize it!
Hey girl. I have always thought of trying this but never really got around to doing it. Not sure how I would do. We are a one income family and so it can be a little difficult at times. We recently cut our cable because it was way to expensive so that had helped little with extra cash. Can’t wait to read your follow up. Hang in there girl.
We are also a one income family. I have enough to do with keeping house and caring for the kids, there is no way I’d be able to go out and work to. Actually we are a family of 6 living on under 25,000 a year. It is very very hard. I’m so tired of living paycheck to paycheck. So we really need this no spend month to see if we actually have money left over at the end of the year. I’m so tired of living paycheck to paycheck with nothing left over at the end of the month. I want to make this a habitual thing…if possible. We cut cable 2 years ago. We do have Netflix for entertainment though. It’s a lot cheaper than cable and has most of the shows that I would be watching anyway. I do everything I can to try and save a buck or two. I will definitely update through the month!!!
I’ve thought about trying this as well. Much respect to you for setting out to achieve this in January!
I’m trying anyway. I did have a little slip up today while I was at the dollar store, but it’s still early. I’m pretty sure I can recover!
This is something I need to have a go out. I’m realky good at saving but the rest of my income I just spend. Luckily I live at horns till and don’t have to pay rent. Saving for my first home though. I buy all my own food and essentials but I definitely overspend so budgeting needs to happen NOW! I’m going to try this in Feb
I’ve been budgeting for 8 years, but it’s hard not to spend on my kids or on a “treat” every once in a while. This is the first time that I’ve tried a No Spend month. I’m hoping that we will find that we have a little extra left over at the end of the month, even if we have a couple little slip ups through the month. I had one today actually while I was in the dollar store. Went in for 2 items and spent $15. Only 7 of which was actually budgeted for. But it’s still early. Back to it. The trick for me, I think is to not go out… other than to the grocery once a week.