No-Spend January

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and it was filled with the 3 Fs: family, friends and freaking good food!


So what about going a month without spending money? What?! A month without spending? Well, I'm definitely toying around with the idea. I L.O.V.E the holidays but come the second week of January and the excitement has worn off, I usually feel a little sheepish about how much I spent. So - a detox, of sorts.

This was the post by Sox in Budgets are Sexy that inspired me. Now Sox is pretty intense, and I don't know if I can quite do what he did, but I'm determined to reign in my spending and hopefully learn a few things, too.

Here's my proposal:

*No spending money on clothes, shoes or other accessories. Period. The holidays will have just happened, and while there will be killer sales, I can suck it up for a month. It's a high probability that I will get at least one clothing item for Christmas, and really, I have plenty of things to wear.

*No spending money on going out for meals or drinks. This does not mean that I can't eat out in restaurants; this just means I cannot pay for a meal in a restaurant. If my husband and I go out for dinner, no joint account money (thanks babe!). Do I have any friends that would like to take me out to lunch or dinner in January? :)

*No other incidental purchases, like coffee, nail polish, candy bars, etc.

*I WILL spend money on things that need to get paid - rent, groceries (I may have to look at upping my budget to account for how much more I'll be eating in), bills, and gas. Obviously, if an emergency expense comes up, I will have to pay for that as well. But we're not talking an I-was-hungry-and-so-I-got-Thai-takeout emergency; this will have to be something that will significantly impact my day-to-day routine (sickness, car emergency, etc).

What are my strategies?

- Be much better about packing my lunch. The expense of lunches out has started creeping up on me again. Stay tuned for another lunch post on how to actually eat and like what you pack for lunch...

-Preparing. I'll be getting work on my car done in December and going to the dentist/doctor to not have any co-pays or other forseen medical expenses taken care of.

- Host people at my house for dinner/drinks instead of going out.

- Getting tips/support from you all! :)

I'll be tracking my progress on the blog so you can hear about my triumphs and struggles. Anyone else want to have a No-Spend January with me?