No Spend Month Update - Week 1

We have officially completed Week 1 of "No Spend Month". We have not been perfect by any means but I am trying to give ourselves grace b/c we are learning and this is a trial thing. We are under grace, not the law here. So I decided to share our "Wins" and our "Learning Opportunities" for Week One.

Jen's Win

After I ran a half marathon on Saturday I wanted pizza worse than anything in the world. Brian gently reminded me that it was No Spend Month so I opted for Macaroni and Cheese instead. I figure we saved $18 at least. WIN!

Brian's Win

Brian has been invited to go out to lunch at work at least twice by people in his office and he has opted to stay back and have Spaghettio's or a sandwich. $15 saved. WIN!

Our Win

We used a gift card to buy a pound of Starbucks coffee that lasted us 10 days. We paid $12 for the pound. It comes out to about $0.50 per person per day. If we had purchased coffee at our respective coffee shops, we would have spent $20 this week. We are also learning to perfect the art of making your own coffee. WIN!

Learning Opportunities

We went to a really fun wine festival with some friends on Sunday. We had made the commitment to go prior to deciding on June being the No Spend Month. It was a really fun time and honestly, worth the $24 per person tickets but it was still money that we spent on something frivolous. Although, there was this chocolate wine that was pretty much worth every penny.

Brian bought some suits last month and the alterations ended up being about twice as much as we expected. But he needs them for a wedding we are going to this month. So what can you do.

Goal for Week 2

This coming week I hope that we will make less quick trips to the grocery store. There were a few times where we were craving something and so we went to get it instead of just making what we had. So the goal is to plan the meals ahead of time and stick to it. And to make sure we have stuff to make homemade pizza always on hand :o)