No Spend Challenge Journal: Week 4

This is the final week of our No Spend February journey. Click here for Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3.


Challenge Recap
If I had to explain what I did this month, I would call it a spending cleanse. We are bombarded everyday with marketing that encourages us to let go of our money on things that we don't really need because we're led to believe it with give us something we might miss out on, whether it's convenience, experiences or a simple feeling. There is, however, diminishing returns on spending. The ability to buy anything we want when we want actually reduces the appreciation we have for the things that we buy. And it distorts our understanding of what we need.

I can't say that I could happily live like this long term but an occasional No Spending month might be exactly what my family needs to refocus our values when we stray too far into materialism.  

Day 22: I'm co-chair in a woman's craft group so I actually host a number of events at my house, including a "How to make spring rolls" event on Sunday. Everyone chips in for materials but it usually only covers 25% of the overall cost of the event and just didn't worry about it. In future months, I am going to try to better estimate the costs so it does cover the total cost instead of putting money out of pocket in lieu of spending the time to accurately estimate. Since I had the event at noon and had to prep, I bought breakfast, while I was at the market buying supplies, for my family so I wouldn't have to cook and clean up afterwards. $12 spent but on foods that I wouldn't have the ability to cook at home anyway (dim sum goodies) because I don't have the tools. And though $12 used to be nothing to me, yesterday, it felt like a luxurious splurge!
 
Day 23: Since we're winding down from ‪#‎nospendfebruary‬, I'm thinking a lot about what the future looks like. I've learned so much about mindful spending this month but worry that when I start spending money again, it will be difficult to reign back in. I also worry that all this focusing on not spending has taken away from trying to make more money. I am considering doing a ‪#‎spendlessdecluttermoremarch‬ challenge where I focus on not spending any money outside the budget while decluttering/selling what I don't need anymore.

I didn't manage to get through all my pantry and freezer items so with the exception of my husband starting to have lunch with colleagues again on Thursdays and Friday and 2 trips to Disneyland, I think we'll stay out of restaurants and keep trying to run down the pantry and freezer. I've also come up with a list of projects that I'm going to try to tackle based off the lessons of self sufficiency/homesteading I've learned this month. Establish a (maybe perennial) vegetable garden. Prevents having to continually buy seeds/plants again every season. Homemade cleaning supplies. Making all natural cleaning supplies is not only saving but also much healthier, especially with littles at home. Weekly meal planning. Prep healthier meals with a larger variety of foods. Stock emergency food stores.

Day 24: As we're planning for future no spend months, I'm looking at bulk purchases and realize there is a very slippery slope to spending. The moment I thought about spending money, it was like a flip switched on my spending mode. How do you keep that in check?

Day 25: I am contemplating a trip to Disneyland, since admission costs us nothing, and using Disney gift cards we already have (we buy them to use in the park in lieu of cash because we get a discount on the GCs) for food and drinks. I am having an internal battle over use of the GCs because in some respects I consider them cash. What we spend now on the GCs is less money to spend later.

Day 26: Husband got a surprise bonus and I got an extra paycheck forgot about from last month so we'll end up saving $8500 this month. So happy about this! We're going to have enough for the addition sooner than expected! ‪#‎nospendfebruary‬

Day 27: My husband's uncle flew in from Vancouver unexpectedly and wanted to come over for a visit. Luckily, because we ate out of our pantry for most of the challenge, I had $100 left in the food budget. Instead of cooking a meal (which I did not have time for), we ordered pizza, picked up some beers and bought some ice cream. I was going to buy a cake but then realized that ice cream is a much more cost effective treat. A small 4 person cake runs about $7 in our local market and expires in a few days but a container of their best ice cream is $5 and has a dozen servings that can be saved and eaten over time. I literally never thought about dessert in such a logical way before!

Day 28: The last day of the challenge and I spent it at Disneyland with my family. We used only the gift cards, packed some extra food, brought our own water and had a lovely time. I even got over 20K steps in which actually made me feel like my March challenge should be ‪#‎getfitandspendlessmarch‬. I checked our budget and found that we spent $30 over our budget in ‪#‎nospendfebruary‬ which was due to to some doctor's visit from my husband pulling a muscle in his back this month. I consider this month a huge win!