The January Spending Diet and The Eat From The Pantry Challenge = SUCCESS

I challenged myself twice in January.

For the first challenge, we went on another spending diet in January. We had a successful spending diet in October and I decided that after the holidays we needed to diet again. I just wanted to let the dust settle from the holidays.

My goal with the spending diet was simple...avoid miscellaneous spending. I didn't want to spend any money except for essentials. I stayed out of the stores and only came upon one conflict with not spending.

My four year old has had a growth spurt. Most of the clothes that we got her back in September for fall and winter have now become too small and too short. If you remember I also challenged myself for 2010 to shop second hand for myself and if possible my kids. I looked in two second hand stores, with not too much success on things her size that looked in decent condition and that she liked and would wear. So, I headed to The Children's Place and Old Navy for their clearance sales. I spent about $40 on clothes for my daughter, at prices ranging from $2.99 for a new winter hat(even her head grew) and $9.99 for a 'shirt with a bow' that she fell in love with. One nice thing about spending money on clothes for my oldest daughter is that I can save them for my second daughter.

The second challenge was the 'Eat From The Pantry Challenge' that I participated in along with many other bloggers. It was hosted by Money Saving Mom and Life As Mom.

My goal with the Eat From the Pantry Challenge was to reduce our grocery savings to $300 from our budget of $400. I decided that the difference from our actual spending and our budget of $400 would be split with half going into our savings and half going to a local food bank. My freezer and pantry are not quite as stocked as many of the other women participating. I didn't have too much chicken or turkey in my freezer to begin with so I knew when those items were going to be on sale in January, I would have to take advantage of the sale and I did.

So how did we do...

Our grocery spending in January came in at $ 290.01 for the month. I came in under our goal of $300 with $10 to spare. Honestly I don't know when I have ever spent that little on groceries.

Our total household spending was reduced by $250, with $110 of that being from groceries. The balance was from just not spending on frivolous and miscellaneous stuff.

This week, I will write a check for $55 and send it to a food bank in our town. The other half I have decided to send to Haiti instead of putting in our savings account. I will find another way to fund our savings account, right now those people in Haiti need that money more than we do.

How did you do in January? Did you go on a spending diet? Did you eat from your pantry? I would love to hear about your month, your successes and your challenges.


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January Spending Diet & Eat From The Pantry Challenge

Whew, another holiday season under our belts. I don't think that we over-spent, but I need to let the dust settle a bit and I am proposing that we go on another Spending Diet in January.

We were on a Spending Diet in October and it was successful as we reduced our spending by $500. Although that $500 was quickly eaten up by sudden car and household repairs.

From our experience in October, I learned that the best way to be successful at a Spending Diet is to AVOID THE STORES. Not surprisingly, avoiding the big box stores is a goal of mine for 2010. I will write more about that on January 1st.

Another key to our success in October was reducing our grocery expense. In October, we reduced our grocery spending by $125 by planning our menus and using food in the freezer and pantry.

This leads me to our next challenge in January. I am going to participate in the Eat From The Pantry Challenge that Money Saving Mom and Life As Mom are hosting.

I will buy our basics, like dairy, eggs, oj, fresh fruit and veggies, but I want to really stir up those creative juices and see what kind of menu I can come up with from items in my pantry and freezer. I don't know how long my pantry/freezer will last me. I don't think my stockpile is as extensive as other people taking the challenge, but I will go as long as I can. My goal will be to reduce our grocery bill down to $300 for January. Our grocery budget was $500 back in October, but because of the success we had that month, I reduced our grocery budget going forward to $400. Can I reduce it even more to $300 for January?...we'll see!! This will definitely be a challenge and take some planning. The difference of what I reduce my spending to and my budget of $400 will be divided in half. I will give half to a local food bank and put the other half in our emergency savings account.

Would you like to join me on a Spending Diet in January? Are you participating in the Eat From The Pantry Challenge? Are you up for a challenge? Good Luck!!

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Spending Diet Update

Have you ever declared yourself on a spending diet? We needed to in the past, but never followed through. Back in September, I wrote about how we needed to put the brakes on our spending and starting October 1, we started our Spending Diet. We had a few guidelines:

(Our allowable expenses for the month are in bold and our current situation is in italics)

• Groceries - I am making an effort to eat more from the pantry and freezer to try to reduce this expense.
  


• The sign up for swim lessons for our oldest daughter is in October. We decided to also signed her up for tumbling and to get tickets for the girls to see Disney on Ice. These were definitely an unplanned expenses, but we made the choices together. We'll see at the end of the month if that was a smart decision or not.


• Our oldest daughter's birthday is early in November. We are planning a small party with a few of her friends and cousins. I am going to keep it simple, but fun. Her birthday is around Halloween, so I am encouraging the kids to wear their costumes. I am searching online for some party game ideas. She told me she wants a pink cake, I might try to talk her into strawberry cupcakes that I can make with the strawberries I picked back in June. I still have a few weeks left for this to come together at a realistic price, but still be very fun for my girl.


• Dine out using only gift cards. Like I said back on Oct. 1st, this is the most challenging guideline for us. At the end of a long week, we like to go out to dinner. We still went out to dinner and we used our gift cards, but we did spend over the amount of the gift card.


• We will still get our cash allowance for the month. Trust me it isn't much. I have about 20% of my cash allowance left...yikes and there is still half a month to get through. I might be digging under the sofa cushions and in pockets soon...LOL!


• Our oldest will need a winter coat and I will keep my eye out for a good sale. It was pretty chilly this morning as we were getting ready for school, so I pulled out last year's coat and she tried it own. It still fits. I don't know if it will make it through the winter though because she is growing like a weed, but it gives me some time to find a good bargain.

Our Disallowed expenses:

• Everything else - I am really avoiding the stores, because they are too tempting. We did go to K-mart for a Halloween costume and I used a gift card that I earned in the spring and the costume was on sale. As I look at our receipts from the first half of the month, we have done a good job at avoiding other purchases.

As I mentioned in my initial Spending Diet post, we are trying to achieve self-control. It is not always easy and sometimes my husband and I can be easily swayed. Although, the Spending Diet hasn't really dominated our discussions this month and we really haven't needed to remind each other about it. We both know that we are trying to save money and without any tension we are spending less. I will be curious to see how much more we will have in our account at the end of October. As far as what we will do with any overage, we have not decided. There is a long list of things that we could use it on. My vote is for the item that will best affect affect our bottom line.

Are you on a Spending Diet? How is it going for you?

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We are going on a Spending Diet!

It is October 1, 2009 and my husband and I are going on a diet. No, we are not trying to lose weight, we are actually trying to gain weight...to our bottom line.

Last week, I confessed to our excessive spending over the last month or so. I wrote that we needed to put the brakes on. Well the brakes are on and we are at a full stop. As I was entering transactions into Quicken last week I noticed that we have been doing a lot of spending lately, making many unplanned purchases. Some of the purchases were needed, but there were many that were impulsive and hardly necessities. I talked to the hubbs about it and he agreed that we need to take a brake.

The Guidelines of our Spending Diet.
Allowable expenses:

1. Groceries - of course we need to eat, but I'm going to try to eat more from the pantry and freezer to try to reduce this expense.


2. Sign up for swim lessons for our oldest daughter is in October.


3. Her birthday is also coming up and we are going to have a small party with a few of her friends. I haven't planned anything yet, but I will be working on it this month.


4. I received some gift cards for my birthday for restaurants that we will use if we feel the need to eat out this month. But we must stay within the gift card and our only out-of-pocket expense will be for any tip. This might be our most challenging guideline.


5. We will still get our cash allowance for the month. Trust me it isn't much.


6. Our oldest will need a winter coat and I will keep my eye out for a good sale. Although I was planning on avoiding the stores, so I won't be tempted to shop. Let's hope for a warm October!

Disallowed expenses:

7. Everything else.

What are we trying to achieve?

• Self-Control.


• How much more will we have in our account at the end of October?


• What will we do with that overage? How will it best affect our bottom line?


• How creative can we be so that we avoid spending money on things like food, entertainment, clothes?

Do you care to join us on our Spending Diet?

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