february spending freeze: final days

Today is the last day of our spending freeze and I’m happy to report that we did incredibly well. You can read more about our month of no spending here, here, here and here. We had another great weekend finding free and outdoor things to do. We visited Red Rocks and climbed the huge amphitheater stairs, which was a total workout.

We visited Lookout Mountain where we stumbled upon a volunteer fair. So we decided to sign up to be trail inspectors in one of the local county’s. We’ll basically visit different trails throughout the spring and summer and report back if we find any maintenance that needs to happen. Simple tasks and a great excuse to get out and hike!

And then there was that wedding show that we stumbled upon. You see, as we were driving up the mountains there were all these signs for free admission to one of the mansions. So we were like sweet, let’s check it out, it’s probably beautiful. It was beautiful and it was also a massive wedding expo with loads of caterers and photographers and florists. But once we were in it was hard to leave. It was so awkward and hilarious at the same time. Needless to say, the food was amazing and there was a cappuccino man mixing up delicious drinks.

I had to fight with the entry way lady on our way out to NOT give me a bag full of goodies. It was so funny. The photo booth guy? He couldn’t believe that we wouldn’t want a photo booth. We finally had to tell him we were married already and didn’t need the damn photo booth.

Anyway, overall for the week we spent $23.12 at the pharmacy, which was unfortunate, but I needed some things for my broken stomach so it was a necessity.

Overall for the entire month we spent $41.40, on things aside from our normal monthly bills. This was amazing for us since we’re usually WAY over that number. We only bought what we absolutely needed. We’ve been out of tissues for 3 weeks, out of paper towels for a week, we’re using free samples of travel sized bars of soap that we had, we’ve bought no beer or wine and we did not eat out. And look at us, we’re still alive and thriving!

I want to think that it was hard, but really, it wasn’t. We meal planned so we bought exactly what we needed at the grocery store and we ate through our freezer and pantry. We found great things to do each weekend that were at no cost to us, and we’re going to continue to explore all the free things the city has to offer. And we’re both really excited for a spring and summer full of hiking, trails and being outdoors from our mini hikes over the past few weeks.

I think we may start to do this a few times a year. Brings you back to reality with what we really need versus want. And not only did we not spend all month which resulted in saving a lot of money, we also brought in some extra income by selling things we no longer needed on Craigslist and eBay and partaking in a local focus group.

Have you guys ever done a spending freeze? Think you might try it? I’ve found that even week-long spending freezes can be incredibly effective for the budget and the bank account. Good luck if you try it out!

february spending freeze: week two, weekend three recap

We had another great week and weekend of staying on track with our spending. This weekend we spent one day hanging out and didn’t do too much because neither of us were feeling great. Once we rallied we took advantage of the free day at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Their popular exhibit now was the orchids which were just beautiful.

The greenhouses were fun to walk through and being surrounded by greenery made me feel like it was spring, which was lovely.

The grounds are massive there so we walked around them, even though there were no plants or flowers since it’s the middle of February.

We look forward to going back in the spring or summer once everything outside has bloomed.

We headed to our friends’ house to hang out and the guys brewed some beer. I’ve never seen how home brewing works so it was fun to watch.

Al received a home brewing kit as a gift for being in his friends’ wedding so he brewed that up.

I’ll let you know how it turns out when it’s ready in five weeks!

Overall for the week the only item not budgeted for was:

Al’s Colorado licence: $21

That’s all we spent for the week and it was a necessity so I think we’re still doing pretty well!

february spending freeze: week one, weekend two recap

So far so good on the spending freeze! We didn’t have nearly as exciting of a weekend as we did last weekend.

This weekend we got some projects done around the house (more to come), went for a walk downtown and just hung out and watched some movies. Always nice to have a chill weekend like that. So far this is what our spending looks like, aside from the items I already mentioned we’d be spending on that were budgeted for:

Contact Solution: $18.28 (which kind of killed me because this would have been $0 out-of-pocket but I had the flex spending card on me and Al was completely out so had to buy some. It was a two pack though, so that made me feel better and the tax in CO is outrageous).

Eye Doctor: $20 co-pay

That’s it though. That’s the only spending done in 11 days so I’d say we’re doing pretty good. And I mean it’s not like we bought $38.28 of magazines and ice cream, though that would have been lovely, they were legit expenses. And if any of you know Al and his love of eyes, you’ll know that “you only get one pair so treat them right.” So, that’s our update.

What about you guys? Anything fun this weekend? Everyone in New England was totally snowed in, which I was jealous of for like an hour and then I got over it because I remembered how I hate snow. Lots of projects to come!

february spending freeze: weekend one

This past weekend was the first weekend of our spending freeze. It’s easy for us to realize that the weekends are going to be the trickiest part of this for us. During the week it’s rare if we go out so that’s not an issue.

I did a little research to see what was going on in the area and I learned that every weekend of every month there are free days at different places in and around the city. So we took advantage!

On Saturday we headed to the Denver Art Museum, free day sponsored by Target, where there were lots of great exhibits. Here are a few of our favorites that we saw:

On Sunday we decided to take a half day trip up to Boulder, which was amazing. We explored the Flat Irons a bit, drove up the mountain and got excited for my foot to heal so we can start hiking again.

It was free day at the Boulder History Museum so we headed there for a bit. I’m a sucker for history museums so I was in my glory. And they had a great exhibit on Girl Scouts since this past year was their 100th anniversary. Al enjoyed the history of the buffalo that used to be in Colorado. They’ve all been killed off now. Amazing how our interests differ.

We had a great weekend though and it was fun finding things to do that didn’t cost money. And I’m actually pretty psyched to find out that there’s different things throughout the city each month that are free. It’s a great way for us to explore our new city!

february spending freeze

That’s right. We’re having a family spending freeze for the entire month of February. We decided to do this last weekend for two reasons. 1. We love a challenge and 2. We could really benefit from it. Okay, three reasons – and 3. more vacations!

Between the bills for my broken foot, getting back on track after moving and spending lots of money on having fun here in our new city we realized we could really use some strict budgeting. Now, we’re already strict budgeters (budgeters: is that even a word?), but there’s still a lot of things in a month that we purchase or spend money on that we could absolutely do without.

So, what does this mean for us? Well, basically we’ll be spending money on:

1. Regular monthly bills: car payment & gas, rent, utilities, student loans, cell phones, etc.

2. Groceries: though, we’ll do a lot of freezer and pantry eating and cooking, trying to use up what we have and buying the least we can get away with.

3. Household items: we’ll buy only what we absolutely need. We won’t deprive ourselves of toilet paper, but we can do without the luxury of paper towels and use rags, and we’ll use what we have in our stock pile for health and beauty items.

4. We won’t go out to eat. We won’t buy beer or wine – though we have some stocked up from the local wine store sale last month. $2.99 a bottle, how could you not stock up?! We won’t buy coffee or tea from the coffee shop.

5. No clothing or home decor purchases. No craft purchases. No movies or bowling or shows.

However, we budget our lives like this: we have our family budget and then we each get paid an “allowance” each month from the family income. That’s our fun money to play with. We’ve had this system in place for nearly four years and it has worked incredibly well for us. We can use our allowance for whatever we want. So, during the spending freeze we’ll still get our regular allowance (because it’s a regular monthly budgeted line item) and if we choose we can buy whatever we want with that.

So, even though going out to eat and home decor are not allowed in the family budget with the spending freeze, if we choose to spend our allowance on it, that’s acceptable.

Our biggest focus right now is cutting the spending from the family budget. I’ll be sure to update you all along the way and see how we’re doing. And I’ll share if we saved any significant amount too.

What about you guys…have you ever had a spending freeze? Wanted to? Need to? Feel free to join in this month if you’d like. Or for a week or two if that’s more doable for you. I think we can all benefit from taking a step back and seeing how much we actually spend on unnecessary items. I’d love to hear if you’ve done this before!