Our “low spend-uary” is nearly complete and I have some results to share. Also, does it feel to anyone else like there are twice as many days in January than any other month? That little comment may give insight into how we did this month.
As a review, here are my low-spend month rules:
- Stay out of Target to avoid impulse buys (that’s for me!)
- Make vs. buy what we can – food is the obvious one, but other items fall into this category and I’ll elaborate below
- No restaurants (caveat being we can get a Costco pizza to go, or hot dog, if desired)
- If an item needs to be replaced, we’ll replace it (shampoo, laundry detergent, etc)
- Try to source items by borrowing from neighbors or the local Buy Nothing group before buying from a store
How’d we do?
- Stay out of Target to avoid impulse buys – I avoided Target except for one pickup order of skincare products I could not source from my local Walgreens and I avoided Walmart. This was my caveat for shopping at Target – if I truly can’t find it elsewhere, I’ll allow myself to do a mobile order and pick it up, as I’m still not going in-store and browsing, which can lead to buying unneeded stuff. SCORE: A-
- Make vs. buy what we can – I did pretty well with this one. We made food and ate leftovers all month long. I also mended the rip in our slip-covered sofa with a patch. No need to buy one of these things to cover it up. I also covered the chaise with a blanket, as the fabric in this area is wearing thin because our dog loves to lie there. SCORE: A
- No restaurants – spoiler alert: we did not accomplish this goal. I knew it would be tough with both my husband and I traveling to Las Vegas for a work convention (we included a caveat to eating out while there, as we were not paying for it and had no way to prep food). My dad also came into town for a week to help us with the boys while we traveled. We took him out to eat twice as a thank you for his help – once on the day of his arrival to a brewery with live music, which he seemed to enjoy as he and his wife never eat out. And then he and I walked to a local breakfast diner on the day of his departure. I wanted to fill him up with a big breakfast since he’d be flying during lunchtime and landing in Dallas around dinner. (I did pack him some snacks to take on the plane as well). My husband’s birthday was this weekend and we continued a family tradition from his upbringing of going to sushi (at the same restaurant his family has patronized for 35+ years) on his birthday. My mom and his parents split the check with us. We got picked up pizza a couple of times as well. All of this restaurant spending totaled nearly $450, so yeah a fail. SCORE: F
- If an item needs to be replaced, we’ll replace it (shampoo, laundry detergent, etc) – I did end up replacing some face wash and moisturizer that ran out, but only after scraping every last bit from the containers. No score is needed for this one.
- Try to source items by borrowing from neighbors or the local Buy Nothing group before buying from a store – we did fairly well with this goal, as I held off on buying things that either the kids or I wanted and put out an ISO on the local Buy Nothing group. My patience was rewarded by a friend seeing one of my group posts requesting a hot glue gun (my artist son was in a creative mood) and texting me to offer one of her (many) spare glue guns. I gladly accepted and planned to walk the mile to her house to pick it up, but she beat me to it and dropped it off on my doorstep! I was also able to borrow my mom’s handheld vacuum vs. paying to use the carwash’s $1.75 vacuums or buying the latest Costco Dyson stick vac (drool). SCORE: A
Overall, I’d say we got a B- on our low-spend month, as I stayed out of retail stores in general (aside from the Grocery Outlet, Costco and our local organic grocer), but deduct points for the high restaurant spend. Overall, we spent less in many other categories including groceries. I also plan to continue my Target rule all year long, as it’s been a trigger for unneeded spending on my part in the past.