I don’t know about you all, but for us, the beginning of the school year is SO EXPENSIVE. Every time I turn around, someone needs clothes or shoes or shoes for a specific activity or that one more supply on the list, etc etc etc. SO. This week! We are not buying ANYTHING. Well, erm, anything EXCEPT:
- Gas
- Dinner out for Ben on Tuesday
- Dinner out for me and the girls on Tuesday
- Pizza of some kind for pizza Friday
- Grocery needs that might arise (this one is a slippery slope, though, because I can spend A TON on specialty groceries and “need” is subjective)
CAN WE DO IT? Yes, I am sure we can. Will we like it? Probably not.
And you might be thinking DINNER OUT, is that not totally counter to the idea of a no spend week? I mean, yes. And I guess I could pack us a picnic to eat between dive drop off and Dorothy's one and only 45 minute dance team class of the night, but I think not dealing with all of that is money well spent. Last week, even though dance hadn’t started yet, she had a photo session in that same window of time and we ate Mod Pizza at the dance studio, and it was so easy and low stress. And I need more easy, low stress things in my life.
Good luck! I'm all for making your life easier - you're so busy!
ReplyDeleteYou can do it! (And yes to making life easier!)
ReplyDeleteShortcuts are the way (especially with Ben away)!
ReplyDeleteAnd Good Luck :)!
DeleteGood luck with your no spend week! We have been getting off easy on expenses because we have so many bins of hand me down clothes so I just shop those bins when the boys grow out of something. We will need to buy a winter coat for Paul, though, because he somehow lost his coat last year?? I don't understand how but I can't judge too much as I am prone to losing things, too. But I more so lost mittens and hats... not a nice OskKosh brand jacket that would have fit for another year...
ReplyDeleteI feel like every week is a no spend week for me, but I spent $5 on a pint of cherry tomatoes at the Farmers Market on Saturday and I have NO REGRETS.
ReplyDeleteI saw the title of this post yesterday and before I was able to read it, I thought Wait, Can I Do That? It would be so hard. We don't eat out often, but there are always other things. We're seeing our college kids almost every weekend in September and that means making tailgate/party food, which isn't the worst thing to spend money on. Good luck! And, I'm all for simplifying life. I wish I'd done that more back in the day when we had busy nights full of activities. I wasn't working though, so it would've been tough to justify.
ReplyDeleteYES! The start of school is expensive, and you've got four younger kids and a kid who just started college. Those costs are huge.
ReplyDeleteYou can do it! I agree though- those dinners out are a "need" in your situation.
I'm new to the concept of No Spend times, I think Stephany described it well. No impulse buys, no things that you don't need. So if I try a No Spend week, I won't buy face cream when I have plenty of face cream already. But sanity is important, and so is social time, so dinner out, to me, is fair game. Especially if you can make it not too expensive.
ReplyDeleteA no-spend week is doable! I hope it went well. Life is just so damn expensive - even more so when you also have a husband and five children to take care of, ha!
ReplyDeleteYou know, it seems like you could frame this as a "no unnecessary spending" week, which could alleviate the guilt - that you should NOT feel, by any means, because my goodness, your life is so busy right now - regarding "eating out". You're feeding your family. Sometimes that means eating out. *shrug* :) (I know, easy for me to say, I'm not feeding four kids at home, but... still?)
ReplyDelete