Introducing: No Spend Months
I have been seriously considering this for months now. As you know, life got busy with a new baby, but is now slowing down. I have recently been inspired by a couple of other bloggers who have done something similar. Now that I have the time to devote to preparing more nourishing foods for our family, I believe the time is right.
Our family will be embarking on a two month spending hiatus. Between the months of November and December we will not be spending money on anything beyond the ‘necessities’. I put necessities in quotation marks because certainly not all of them are necessities. We are currently renting, but surely we could live in a tent. We currently have electricity, showers, a phone and the internet, but surely we don’t need them. We also own a vehicle that, while we don’t make payments because we purchased it outright, requires gas.
So, what can we spend money on?
- rent
- electric bill
- phone/internet bill
- gas
- student loans
- giving to ministry
- emergencies
- milk & eggs from our farmer
- anything Mr. S deems necessary
What can’t we spend money on?
- food, other than the above
- anything else
I realize the “can’t” list seems silly because it only contains two things, however that first one is a biggie for me. I will not be entering a grocery store, barring an emergency, between November 1st and January 1st.
Because I am in charge of procuring and preparing our food, this is the biggest challenge for me. Much of the reason I wanted to do this was because of our food budget. I don’t feel that our food budget is necessarily out of hand, but I feel this challenge will give me more insight into what I buy and what we eat. We look at food as an investment – you get what you pay for. Every time I enter a conventional grocery store (which isn’t all that often these days) I am saddened. I see that we could eat for much less, and that always gives me angst. What saddens me, though, is how everything in that store has one objective: to make someone money, not necessarily to nourish a body. In the past both Mr. S and I have subsisted on the standard American diet (SAD). We both know what that does to our bodies and we will not go back. Especially not with children. (This isn’t to say, however, that you can’t feed your family healthy foods from the grocery store. Stephanie, at Keeper of the Home, has done an excellent series about making the most of the regular grocery store.)
I am not going into this without preparing, however. I have been and will continue over the next two weeks to stock up on pantry items and local, seasonal vegetables that will keep (winter squash, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, apples, pears). Before refrigeration and mega grocery stores our great grandparents stored up food from spring to fall and purchased NOTHING throughout the winter. It seems only fitting that as it is cooling down here in the Midwest, I would embark on this challenge.
You will notice that we are also receiving milk and eggs weekly. The raw milk we feed both our toddler and our baby (through a supplemental raw milk formula) we feel are too vital to their nutrition to leave out. Eggs are also a highly nutritional component of our diet, especially for young children and nursing mothers, so we will continue to receive two dozen per week. Besides, we like supporting our local farmer in the process :). We also hope to one day have our own laying hens and milk producing animal, so perhaps this will be a foreshadow of things to come.
For the next two weeks I will be sharing the preparations I will be making for the challenge. Once November 1st hits, I will be sharing what we are eating and how we are doing. I don’t expect life to feel any different, as we don’t generally purchase many things. I do, however, see a lot of room for creativity in the kitchen with this experiment.
So follow along, or better yet join in the fun, as we embark on our no spend months.
I am doing something similar this month. I am calling it 31 days of nothing. So far it is going well and we were able to save a good bit of money with the first paycheck of the month. I still feel it is early in the month though, even though we are almost halfway through. If this goes well, then maybe i could try 2 months next year somtime. I will be watching to see how it goes for you.
I’ll join you. We actually do a no-spend challenge during the Giftmas shopping season each year as Sean and I find opting out of the system to be more than a bit humorous ;o) I have a few essentials to pick up this week, but after this, everything else will just be the items needed to live, except for what I send “over there” in packages, of course. Though I guess morale boosting would be considered a necessity by most normal people. 😛
Jennifer – I will have to read your blog to check it out. I am hoping we save a bit too. More money to throw at that debt!
Amy – Great! Please let us know when you get started, what you’re doing, etc. on your blog. I love that you call it Giftmas. Never heard that one before, but it fits so perfectly. Mr. S will chuckle at that one. We, too, avoid the stores pretty much from the Oct. 31 holiday through the end of xmas, especially with little eyes that wonder about strange sights in the store.
Blessings,
Mrs. S
I need to do this soon. I have been off track the past few weeks and it is starting to catch up with me!
We’ve done this before (on my blog, I called it the Savvy Spending Challenge). It was such a good thing for us! We saved money, finished paying off our car, and were reminded that we can get by with so much less than we think we need.
I like Amy’s idea of opting out of spending during the Christmas season. We’re so tired of the commercialism. Spending nothing appeals to me so much, compared to the frenzy I see around me every year!
ahighandnoblecalling – Thank you for commenting. Glad to see you are getting back on track.
Stephanie – That’s encouraging that you accomplished so much with your challenge. I agree the frenzy around the end of the year holidays is absurd and as Amy said, this will be a nice added incentive to stay away from it.
Mrs. S
I think this will be an interesting challenge, and definitely one to learn from!
I’m in! I will post a little bit of a modification to it on my blog. I know it won’t work if say…I can’t do my weekly grocery shopping.
Wow!
I am really impressed that you will be attempting no spending at this time of the year!
I could probably do it mid-summer when the garden is in and there are no holidays/birthdays, but I don’t think I could manage for the next two months.
I am inspired to make more homemade gifts, though, and stay out of the stores.
Good luck on your challenge, it’ll be great to watch how you do it!
I am embarking on this journey this month as well! Check out my blog at http://www.JustPlainJoy.blogspot.com. (Followed you from SmallNotebook.)
I did a post about you and your experiment on my blog. I love the idea. I will check back to see how things are going. I live in Kansas and can not seem to find a sourc of raw milk and the only farm fresh eggs are about 40 miles away during the winter months. I would like to have some chickens of our own, but our city will not allow it. I guess it will have to wait until the Lord blesses us with out own small farm someday.
http://mommystayshome.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-always-thought-i-did-pretty-fair-job.html
Lorrie,
Thanks for sharing a link to my blog. I’m sorry to hear about not finding raw milk. We certainly are blessed to have that near us. Thanks for visiting and commenting!
Shannon