A gal I am acquainted with on a sewing forum has undertaken this challenge, along with her whole family. Aside from bills, food, and their rules, no spending. Trying to get out of debt. See happilyfrugal.com for their rules.
Could you do it? Would you try? Have you tried something similar?
The closest to this we have come is no eating out for a month. And I recently cut out several things to trim our budget by about $100/month. Hubby started working more hours, so that helps tremendously with the budgeting.
If we stick to the current plan, our credit card will be paid off in 4 months. Even though we will still have hospital, car, and house debt after that, we will be putting aside that money for a new van. The hospital does not charge us interest, and we will still have to make car and mortgage payments, but we need a mini van and really don't want to be making payments on it (having learned our lesson with *still* being upside down in the car after 3 years of payments). We also talked today about various places we'd like to travel (Europe, Japan, the Pacific Northwest to see family and friends, Disney, etc.), and hubby said, "If we had 20K in the bank, I'd say let's go. But we don't." Well. hmph. Let's find out how much of a tightwad I can be ...
So ... As far as windfalls go, the Christmas money is about to arrive. I still don't know what we're doing, but we'd really like a Wii. Do we spend half the check on the Wii and accessories, a gift card for Small Fry, and stash the rest? Or do we spend $100 on each of us and stash the rest? Or do we blow the whole of it, knowing it's the last "fun" money we're going to have for a while?
The tax return next year: Not sure how big it'll be, assuming we get one, but really, I'd like to just put it all in the bank.
My goal? How much can we save in the next year. You may see me on the computer and blog less, as I try and work a little extra every day to put towards that savings ... I don't know that we'll be able to do the "no spend for a year" thing, but we can definitely be more frugal and thrifty ...
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Mac and Cheese (High Protein)
5 days ago
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Interesting ... We've kinda been doing this anyway while Adam has been in law school just because we have no extra money. It's something for us to think about for next year when he does start working and see how much we can save the first year while knocking down our debt like the car and the credit cards (which have been used for "frivolous" things like our health insurance premium a couple of times). I also would like to take some trips to the Northwest and Europe ... Good luck with your budgeting!
Holy cow... that woman is very structured. I'm not sure if I could do that. I consider myself to be frugal, but certainly not like that. I'm not sure if I could do that.
Good luck with your cutting costs. Seems like you're on the right track.
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