No-Spend January

I’ve been seeing a lot about having a “no-spend” month online lately, and Jon and I have made a commitment to this challenge in January, 2012. We are hoping it will help us jump-start our credit card payoff plan and help us take charge of our budget a little better. Our goal is to buy a house for each other for Christmas next year, so we want to do everything we can to make that happen, which means getting the debt GONE! I will be blogging about this just to keep track of our thoughts and feelings, as well as the progress.  I think an exercise like this is exactly what we need, as we have both always been pretty free with our spending - if we have it, we can spend it - and we really need to focus on saving right now.

Here are the rules we created. You can feel free to make up your own.

1. No spending on items that are not groceries or other necessities.
2. No going out to eat except for one weekly date night.
3. All entertainment should be free, or if there is a charge, it has to be under $10 for both of us and can only be once a week.
4. Write down ALL spending and categorize for future budgeting.
5. No unnecessary car trips to save on gas.
6. No online shopping.
7. Plan meals and stick with them - allow leftovers for lunches so that there is no “going out” for lunch.
8. Emergencies, doctor visits, vet visits, do not count. If something comes up that needs to be taken care of, it will be - health is more important than money.
9. At the end of the month, evaluate feelings and thoughts about the process and make a new budget for the year based on the findings.

As you can see, this will also help with weight loss goals, as meal planning will include healthy meals rather than restaurant food which is always pretty high in calories, etc.

Any money saved will go toward the payoff of the credit card we are working to pay off right now.

So who’s with me? No-Spend January? Anyone??