Hey, hey!
February is right around the corner, and I wanted to share with you all that Theo and I are doing a little spending freeze during the month of February. I know that many people on Instagram said they had interest in joining us, and I always love some accountability! I wanted to type up some of our plans, thoughts and suggestions here before the month even begins so that you can decide if you want to join us, too!
First things first- I don’t get to lay down the rules for you. I don’t know what your month looks like or what you are spending your money on. Only you know that, and you are responsible for laying the rules for yourself. I also highly recommend that you and your spouse be on board with this TOGETHER. It’s just not going to work as well if you are planning on doing a spending freeze but your husband is planning on buying himself a new pair of shoes. Or vice versa. Sit down and have a little conversation sometime in the next few days and make sure you are both on the same page.
The next thing you need to do is PREP for a no-spend month. You don’t need to spend weeks going into doomsday prepping, but you do need to consider a few things before you begin.
- Know where your money goes. Since we already have one month of the year under our belts, this should be fairly simple, although it will take about 30 minutes of your time. Pull up your bank and credit card statements and write down EVERYTHING that you spent in the month of January. Make categories like gas, bills, subscription services, groceries & household supplies, Amazon purchases, eating out & drive-throughs, personal spending, etc. Once you have finished writing down every single thing you spent in January, look it over and find any areas that you could cut down on. Obviously, bills are pretty set, but there are sometimes bills I realize that we can cut down on or get rid of altogether (goodbye cable and Netflix!). Now that you know where all your money is going, you can better prepare to not spend it all!
- Set a budget for nonnegotiables. Unless you happen to run a subsistence farm, most of us will have to purchase groceries, pay our bills and put gas in our car during the month. Be realistic here! A challenge like this does not mean that you will not spend ANY money. It just means you are going to challenge yourself to spend the minimum amount of money possible. This means setting a weekly grocery budget, and it may mean cutting out snacks or ice cream from my grocery shopping in order to stay in budget. It’s important to remember that we still need to buy some things but to also put a limit on ourselves to help with not overspending.
- Consult your calendar so you can be realistic. Don’t go into the month saying that you won’t spend ANYTHING. I don’t find that to be realistic. Instead, look at your calendar for the month and know when you will be spending money. Perhaps you already have something planned for Valentine’s Day, or you are the class Mom and know you will be putting together a party. Don’t cut out spending on those things entirely, but just be realistic and know that you will be spending money on that. But also….set a budget. Don’t just browse Hobby Lobby and buy Valentine’s Day decor because it’s the only month you can do that.
- Meal Prep/Freezer and Pantry Cleanout. Not everyone loves meal prepping, but I find it to be one of the best ways to help us save money. When I know what I’m going to be cooking, I can limit my grocery list to only the ingredients that I need for that week. The spending freeze month is also the BEST time to do a freezer and pantry cleanout. Instead of buying another box of elbow noodles, I can use up the ones that I have in my pantry! It’s sometimes a fun game to see how many meals I can get out of what I already have in my pantry and freezer. You should try it!
- Just Say NO. While there are lots of tips and tricks for making a spending freeze month a little easier, one thing that you just have to do is say NO. Say no to things. Say no to new Valentine’s Decor and just use the stuff from last year, or go without, or make your own. Say no to purchasing that dress from Amazon or that home decor from Hobby Lobby. Just say no. It’s really hard and it’s an exercise in self-restraint, but it’s so worth it in the end.
- Choose what you want to use your saved money for. One of the biggest problems I’ve had with a spending freeze in the past is that as soon as the month is up, I hit checkout on my loaded up Amazon cart or I go buy all those things that I couldn’t buy during the freeze. THIS IS NOT HOW TO DO A SPENDING FREEZE! I think one of the main points of a spending freeze is to gather up all the money that would have been spent and use it for a specific and set purpose. Maybe you only end up “saving” $100– put that $100 towards a loan pay-off, or into a savings account or into a vacation fund. Choose a charity to donate it to. That way, throughout the month as you say NO to certain things, you can remind yourself of where that money is going. $2 on a Starbucks drink doesn’t feel like a lot at the time, but just imagine that $2/day for 30 days is $60 and that could feed your whole family a nice meal out on vacation!
- Identify your triggers and avoid them! This right here is why tip #1 is so important. If you had asked me how much I spend on eating out in the month of January, I would have said less than $50. But when I added up all the CFA drive-through-ing I did, it added up to $100!! GAH!!!!!! Since I know that CFA is a trigger for me, I will make sure to be avoiding it for the entire month of February. Perhaps your trigger is an IG account that sells some CUTE clothes. I would suggest muting them for the month. Perhaps you love some Target browsing – stick to just groceries for the month. Perhaps it’s Amazon that gets you every time- log out and have someone change the password for the month. Know your triggers and avoid them!
- Remember, it is just a month! I know that some of us have a hard time with spending, me included. However, I truly believe that we can do anything for 29 days. It’s not going to kill us to not buy decor or clothing or bagged popcorn for 29 days. We can do it. It’s just a month. You’ve got this.
Are you interested in joining us? I’ll be over on Instagram stories sharing all about our spending freeze month! I would also love to hear from you- have you done a spending freeze before? How do you go about it? What are your “rules”? What are your weaknesses or triggers and how do you go about avoiding them?