No Spend Month

Ok, I'm putting it out there so I can't back down. Next month will be NO SPEND MONTH.

Between cars, gifts, Noah's birthday and Mason growing, we've spent too much. A small trip to Target easily turns into $100+ and is almost never less than $50. If we want to afford to go home in June for 2 weeks (which includes flying, rental car, hotel, food and Mason's party) we have to save a ton.

If next month is successful, we'll continue until we go home. We might have to adjust our budget depending what our freezer and cabinet look like after this month. I think we have enough right now to not need to buy meat for two weeks, maybe.

I'm going to factor in Noah's birthday as well. We want to do everything we can to make it special since plans changed and it's not going to be the way we imagined.

For his birthday, I need to buy the food ingredients, finish the decorations (not much) and Aaron's taking him for a hair cut and special breakfast that day. Otherwise we're pretty much set.

Gas will be our biggest factor since Aaron drives a good 30-40 minutes each way, plus I have to take the kids to appointments (where Aaron works) and Noah goes to the gym each week.

We go through roughly 2 gallons of milk a week plus a good amount of fresh produce, so that will be another large factor. Mainly we get baby carrots, asparagus (if on sale), bananas, pears and apples. If other things are on sale we might get those like cantaloupe, berries and tomatoes.

Hopefully, in all we can keep our budget to $350 for the month including groceries, gas, clothing, household, eating out, entertainment. It may seem like a lot, but $100 at least will be for gas. Normally our grocery budget is $125 a WEEK (which we normally stay under by $30-40).

I hope we can do it. If we can, we'll save about $550. We overspend every month. Not sure where other than Target, lol, but we do. We need to cut it out!

Will you do the No Spend Month challenge with me?