Here’s a good way to kick start your emergency fund or help pay down debt: have a no-spend month. This is a full month (or whatever amount of time you want to specify) where you only spend money on essentials like utility bills, your mortgage or rent, prescription drugs, gas to get to work and necessary groceries – whatever your true essentials might be.
*Note to self: Asiago cheese bread is not a necessary food. Neither is Panera.
To start out, it helps if you pick a month when you expect to have fewer expenses. For us, that means a month where there are no birthdays or holidays. January, April and August are our pick months.
Hubz and I have implemented the no-spend month a few times. It's hard to do 100% and we sometimes cheat, but overall it really makes us think about our needs vs. wants, which is always a good thing. At the end of the month it’s great to see that little extra sitting in the checking account that can be applied to debt or moved into the adoption fund.
Another benefit to concentrating on what we truly need vs. what we want is that the wants seem a little less spectacular afterwards. Is that $7 chunk of cheese more important to me than paying off our adoption loan? Heck no! If I could make that decision more times than not, we’d be a lot farther ahead.
It’s not always easy to distinguish between your wants and needs, but a no-spend month (or even week!), if you’re dedicated to it, can really get you moving in the right direction.
Linking up with Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways
I think I could do this easier than my hubby!! He still sees the "need" to drive 8 miles (one way) to town almost EVERY day in his full-size pickup to visit with his buddies. (sigh)
ReplyDeleteThey do seem to define needs differently than us sometimes, those men. It could always be worse though!
DeleteI did this in January. Right after Christmas, seemed like a good time to save a bit. However, we do have one birthday in our house in January, but with 5 kids we have a birthday every other month. It was so eye opening, to see how much we are wasting every month, week or day. I was just thinking about doing this again, and you inspired me, to try this again!
ReplyDeleteShannon - January is a good month to do this. After Christmas our pocketbook could use the rest! :) I'm glad you're jumping back into it. I hope it's another successful month for you! Good luck.
DeleteWe do this at least once a year, sometimes twice. I plan to do it in July again, but not run the whole month, but cover the 2 paychecks in July if that makes sense.
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