Mama Knows Best

I have been reading a lot from Small Notebook today and yesterday, and she has some amazing tips, tricks, and ideas. Today I want to talk about the “No Spend Month” and the different ways this can be approached.

I am not sure where this philosophy started, however I do applaud all that it stands for. No matter who you are, if you are single or married, have kids or not, you can try this for one month and see where it gets you. It is easily adaptable to any situation, income, or family size.

Rachel from Small Notebook decided to challenge her family of 3 to only spend $250 in one month. That’s $250 for groceries/eating out, gas, clothing, coffee, household necessities, and entertainment. (Rent, insurance, bills, health costs, work costs, savings, and investments were not included in the $250 limit.) She rounded out the month by spending only $218! She made sacrifices where they could be made, i.e. groceries instead of Starbucks.

Then in a newer posting by Rachel, she shared Carly‘s story from back in October about how Carly decided for her sociology “personal change” project she would give herself a “fun allowance.” She decided to limit herself to $10 per week for “fun money” and then cease spending for the rest of that week. For the first week, Carly decided to spend her entire $10 on a lunch with coworkers, and they planned the meal weeks in advance. Carly discovered that she felt good about spending her money on something she was looking forward to. Right away that is a major discovery in my mind, because this is ow we all should view money and spending. That is the purpose of No Spend Months.

No Spend Months were probably invented to make the debt-crazed and the frivilous spenders realize what the true value of a dollar can be. Instead of living paycheck to paycheck or buying whatever you see (oh I’m sorry “need”) while you are in a store, you really have to think about it first.

You should keep your allowable spending very minimal. If you do not think that it is possible to set a budget like Rachel did for the month, then start with the smaller “fun” budget of $10 like Carly did. Then once you think you can stick to that, start shortening your other expense budgets until you can “see” what kind of a monthly budget would normally be for you. Then for one month, shorten that semi-dramatically and see how much you can save. Whatever money you have left (or have saved) put directly into your savings or emergency funds.

Did you try one of these methods? How did it turn out? Do you have any other ways you have tried, and were you successful? Tell us your story.