31 Days of Nothing - Recap

Our 31 Days of Nothing is over. I feel like we succeeded in this challenge. Here is a quick recap of the month.

1. I was able to stay within my $100 grocery budget and still fed my family healthy meals. I made one last trip at the end of the week to use some high dollar coupons that were going to expire. The margarine was at a stock up price of $.50 lb so I picked up a few of those. I still use margarine in some of my baking. The 2 liter was a "thank you" to my sweet husband for going along the entire month with the challenge and doing an amazing job and the gum cost me $.28 each. After coupons I spent $15.35 bringing my monthly total to $95.89.2. We succeeded in not spending any money on entertainment. We made a few trips to the library and picked up some free movies as opposed to renting. I made treats at home instead of going out for ice cream.

3. It is possible to stay out of the stores. We managed to not purchase any clothing, books, videos, games, etc. Even though I have 2 children who need shoes we have been able to postpone that and squeeze a couple more weeks out of the shoes they have. This will be one of our first purchases we make now that the challenge is over.

4. What little food waste we have had, has been taken to the compost bin. We have a good system where we collect scraps in a container inside each day and then after dinner each night one of the boys is assigned to dump it in the 5 gallon bucket outside. Then once a week the bucket outside the door is taken to the pile by the woods.

5. We made and ate dinner at home each night. The only exceptions were 1 night we used a coupon for a free pizza from Casey's and another night we ate at a fundraising spaghetti dinner that was held by my nephews boy scout troop.

6. The kids have done really well watching their water usage and remembering to turn lights and electronics off when they leave the room. I am most impressed with my oldest son who has cut his shower times in half.

I must admit this last week has been tough. There was many times I really wanted to run through and grab an ice cream cone or pick up a candy bar when checking out at the store. I stuck to it though and passed up the opportunities. Unfortunately we had some major expenses come up this month and we didn't really save any money. However, we are able to pay for these unexpected expenses because we didn't spend any unnecessary money this month.

I really enjoy challenging myself and my family. It was fun having others join in and reading their progress each week. I will definitely be doing it again. Thanks for following along.

How about you? Where you successful this month? Did you learn anything new? Feel free to leave a comment or link up your blog post below.

31 Days of Nothing - Week 4

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This is the last Friday of the month. We have almost completed the challenge! I will be doing one more post and link up next week to give an overview of the month. I am really looking forward to hearing how everyone did.

Well this was an interesting week to say the least. On Tuesday my oldest son broke his hand requiring a trip to both our primary care doctor and an Orthopedic specialist. The totals for that day cost me $70 and that is just the beginning of the charges I'm sure.

Here were our other expenses for the week.

$46.o6 spent on gas to fill up my husbands Jeep.

Over the weekend we celebrated 2 birthdays and also attended a fundraising dinner for my nephews who are in Boy Scouts. Total spent on those events was $54.00.

Prescription $2.33.

2 grocery trips. $10.44 was spent on the following. ($.45 for each of the 2 liters-good eye by my husband!)$16.55 was spent on the second trip.Total spent for the week on groceries was $26.99, bringing my total for the month to $80.54. I think we can get away with staying out of the grocery store for the rest of the month.

Today was a huge bummer financially. We took my van in yesterday because the heater wasn't working. After all the inspections they told us that is was going to cost us $1400 to fix. That isn't even fixing everything that is wrong. This is just to get us driving safely again. Sigh...so it looks like we won't be saving much money after all this month. The only good thing is that now we have a little extra money to go towards this large, unexpected expense.

How did your week go? Leave a comment or link up your blog post below.

31 Days of Nothing - Week 3

This week went amazing well. The cold weather kept me in the house most of the time. I did go out on Monday to take my son to a birthday party. We stopped at Target to buy a gift and I felt some urges as I walked past the shoe and clothing department. I saw lots of clearance signs. One of those was on winter snow boots. I felt a little tug knowing that all my kids would need new winter boots next year. They were still $14 even at 50% off. I walked away from Target only buying the gift that we came there to get.

I was telling my husband about all the clearance signs when I got home and he said "but really how much of that stuff do we really need?" The only thing we would really need were the boots and the chances of me finding some on a community swap or at a garage sale in the Spring for just a couple bucks is pretty high. So I was pretty happy that I resisted the urge to buy stuff.

I went all week without going to the grocery store. I finally went in last night because the baby needed milk. I spent $11.52. That puts my total to $53.55 for the month.I have gone almost 2 weeks without getting gas in my vehicle. That is unheard of! I still had about half a tank left and decided to go ahead and fill up since the temps in our area where getting close to zero. I spent $33 on gas.

We didn't spend money on anything else this week other than 1 prescription. My husband bought his first soda at work. He had a rough week. He has gone from buying a soda almost every day to just one in 20 days. I'm ok with that.

So now it's your turn. How did your week go? Leave a comment or link up your blog post below. I look forward to hearing how your week went.

31 Days of Nothing - Week 2

We are 13 days into the 31 Days of Nothing Challenge. All is going well on our end.

I went to the grocery store on Saturday the 7th and got this for $15.93.I then went yesterday the 12th and got this for $20.95. I was a little bummed my total was so high. It doesn't seem like much for $20. For the week I spent $36.88. My goal is to stay under $100 for the month. I am sitting at $42.03 right now.

My husband filled up his jeep with gas for a total of $54.36. Other things we spent money on this week were...

2 prescriptions $15.56
Eye exam and new frames for the hubby $100
Paid off my Kohl's credit card from Christmas shopping $153.89
Paid the garbage bill and a couple random medical bills

No unnecessary money went out this week. I am so proud of my husband for not buying any pop or snacks or lunch for that matter at work. This is huge for him and he is doing great. We have cooked and eaten at home for all our meals. My pantry and freezer are still very well stocked. I think I had put up way more food than I thought.

I hardly went anywhere this week so my gas tank is almost full from when I filled up on Sunday. My oldest son is needing some new shoes but said he thought he could get by for a few more weeks. We do have some gift cards that we could use but the goal is to stay out of the stores so I am going to hold onto them. I am a little tempted because I just got a Kohl's coupon for 30% off in the mail. I feel like I should get the shoes now since we have the coupon but for now I am going to hold off. These are the things that tempt you into the store to spend money!

The family has done relatively well turning lights, radios and TVs off when leaving the room. The weather was decent earlier in the week so I even hung a couple loads of laundry outside.

How are you doing? Are you feeling the need to shop? Leave a comment or link up your blog post below. I look forward to hearing how your week went.

31 Days of Nothing - Week 1

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We are on Day 6 of our 31 Days of Nothing. This first week has gone pretty easy. I felt no temptation or need to go to the stores or spend any money. I did go to the grocery store on Wednesday and spent $5.15 on a gallon of milk and 2 heads of lettuce. I ran out of bread so I made 2 loaves of homemade bread instead of buying any. (I will be posting my bread recipe later next week.) I budgeted $25 for the week so I am well under.

I tried not to leave the house as much this week. Wednesday I had to go into town for an appointment so I did my other errands at the same time. This helped me save on gas.

Unfortunatly alot of money was spent this week on medical expenses. That is something I can't really control. We had to take my daughter to the emergency room early in the week because she was running a fever of 105 and vomiting. She required an IV and antibiotics. She is doing better now. We had yearly eye exams for myself and 2 older children. We had to pay our co-pays for the exams. I also had to pick up some medication for my son. Since it is a new year, our deductibles start over. This means paying full price for prescriptions until the deductible is met.

We started composting all our table scraps again. I am using a 5 gallon bucket set outside our back door to store the scraps in. Every couple days I will have one of the boys empty it into the compost pile in the backyard.

I still need to call and see if we can get another recycle container. Our recycle is only picked up every 2 weeks and we fill it almost weekly. That is on my list of things to do.

There was lots of reminders this week for turning lights off. Hopefully after another week of nagging it will become habit. The kids have done well limiting their water usage. They even took quick showers.

Over all I am happy with how the week went. I am excited to hear about your first week. Leave a comment or link up your blog post below. We can all support and benefit from each other.

31 Days of Nothing Kick Off - Come Link Up!

Today is day one of our 31 days of nothing challenge for the month of January. I am totally committed to staying out of the stores, spending no money, as well as being more earth friendly and green.

If you want to read my families goals for this challenge you can read about it here. I will be updating a few times a week on how we are doing. I am excited to host a link up as well each Friday for the entire month. If you are wanting to join in on this challenge feel free! You can make up your own rules for this challenge. We can all benefit from each other. Please link up your blog post below telling us about your rules and goals for this challenge. This way we can all follow you on your journey. Then continue to come back each Friday and update us on how you are doing.

Please link back to this post so others can follow along. Feel free to post the following button.

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Good luck!

31 Days of Nothing Challenge

My family and I are kicking off the new year with a 31 days of nothing challenge. This will be our 4th year doing this type of challenge. You can read all about our first year here. This was what really kicked off our frugal lifestyle and made me change the way we live. You can also read about lasts years adventure here.

This 31 days of nothing isn't just about not spending any money. It's also about being more aware of how we are living. Not being wasteful by leaving lights on or keeping the water running. Being more earth friendly by composting, recycling and making our own cleaners.

My family and I have sat down and planned out some rules. Here are the rules we have set for our family for the month of January.

1. The ultimate goal is to spend NO money except for necessities. For my family I consider necessities to be gas for work and appointments, monthly prescription medications, groceries (although very minimal, more on this later) and our basic bills and utilities. Necessities may mean something different for your family.

2. There will be no consumerism. My hope is to stay out of the stores completely. No new clothes, books, or any other impulse buys. No shopping the deals!

3. Groceries. I am allowing $25 per week for grocery shopping or $100 per month. I really just want to stick with eating from the pantry and freezers as much as possible. We will need milk for the baby, as well as fresh produce so I am setting money aside for those things. We should be good on most other items because our freezers and pantry are very full. I usually budget $500 for the month.

4. Zero money spent on entertainment. No eating out, we will cook from scratch and eat at home each day. No money spent on movies or impromptu ice cream cones. We usually budget $150 each month for entertainment.

5. Allowance. Everyone is giving up their allowance for the month. There will be no money in our pockets tempting us to spend it.

6. My gas budget is up in the air right now. I need to actually keep track of what we are spending so I can get a more accurate number. For this month though, I want to just try and stay home as much as possible. Combine our errands so that we aren't making multiple trips each week.

7. Get back composting, recycling, and shutting off. Our compost bin has been missing so scraps have been being tossed in the trash which makes me crazy. We are great at recycling but the bins need to be cleaned up. My family has gotten extremely lazy about shutting off lights and unplugging items when not in use. This is going to be enforced more.

8. Cutting back on water usage. Our water bill has done nothing but climb. We use alot of water. Mainly because of long showers and children playing in the sinks. Showers will be timed and sink time monitored to make sure we aren't being wasteful.

I will add to this list if I think of anything else.

So what do you think? Want to join me on this 31 days of nothing challenge? You can make up your own set of rules for your family. You can join for 1, 2, 3 weeks or the entire month. It is a great way to kick off your savings or even pay off some of that Christmas debt.

I will be hosting a weekly linky each Friday. I will be giving my weekly report and will post a linky here for anyone who wants to join in and link up their blog. I only ask that you make sure you link back to Learning the Frugal Life or display this great little button. Just copy the html code and add it to your post. Don't have a blog and still want to join? Leave a comment letting us know how your family is doing.

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I am really looking forward to this challenge. I encourage you to join in with me. It could really open your eyes to how you spend your money. It is a great way to start living more frugally and learning to be content with what you have. Who knows, it may change your way of living forever.