Day 15

3/11- No Money spent today. Yeah. I think that this is the second day where we haven’t spent anything- sort of pathetic. I have been talking to people about this experiment and I am amazed at how many people say that they have been doing the same thing to carrying degrees.

One friend and his wife are doing it to get out of debt and give themselves more options for the future, another has two houses they are maintaining so extras are going to that right now. Still others have had reductions in income for whatever reason and are trying to live more resourcefully. I have also run into a few people who have always done this. These are my more frugal friends and relatives and seems to be relate to how they were raised.

Jay and I have also had several discussions this Lent about what pieces of this we would carry forward after Easter. I think that overall it would be a general consciousness of what we are spending. But imagine if we- gasp- had a food budget- that seems to be where most of our money goes- other than the boys activities. If we just set a budget for the grocery store and eating out I think we could easily save more money.

Have you had these conversations with friends, loved ones? Have you been considering these ideas or ways to incorporate them into your life?

Money Spent- $0

Day 14

3/10- My wonderful hubby took me to lunch today. It put us a little over our food budget for the week but it has been forever since we went out anywhere by ourselves and it was nice to catch up on all that is going on in our lives.

In the evening, A had a spring musical tonight and as always it was wonderful. It was so cool to see A play the drums and sing. I don’t give him enough credit for all of the things he keeps track of in his life.

Money Spent- $17 (Lunch for Jay and Heather)

Day 13

3/9- Nothing exciting today. We have been cleaning out our freezer and discovering all kinds of yummy treats. I am starting to get the swing of things. I have some ideas for how to use up some items in our freezer this week. We defrosted the last of the flauta meat and made flautas Sunday evening. They were great. And gone. 4 dozen of them in 24 hours. I am pretty sure some people in our house were sneaking them but no one is ‘fessing up.

Money Spent- $8 (Heather lunch with a friend)

Day 12

3/8- Today my ‘buy only what you need’ self clashed with my ‘wow this is a good deal’ self. I think they ended in a draw. As soon as I walked in the door, they had ‘almost’ expired marshmallow on sale- 3 packages for $1. I figured- it is only $1 and I can make rice krispie treats. This clash followed me through the rest of the store- there were some really good deals. I did fairly well through the rest of the store. My goal was $40 (revised from the unrealistic $30 previously posted). I ended up at $43 dollars- The $1 for the marshmallows and $2 for the rice cereal to make treats with put me over my goal.

On another note, Jay has been itching to make pretzels using dough from his bread maker and he finally made them Sunday evening. They were WONDERFUL! I cannot believe we let our breadmaker languish in the basement when it can make so many wonderful things for us. It is definitely going to find a permanent home in the kitchen.

Money Spent- $43 ($43- grocery store- darn those marshmallows for being on sale)

Day 11

3/7- All I have to say is EEK! Today it was very hard not to spend. A went to an archery tournament in Linn MO (east of Jeff City and about 3 hours from our house). We knew that we would need to buy lunch/snacks so we packed some things and brought drinks from home. I also knew that I hadn’t used my allotted lunch money all week so I felt okay with buying lunch for A and I.

I drove with several other parents and that turned out to be very helpful in the no-spend department. I did all the driving but they paid for dinner and chipped in for gas. I think I figured out that I spent $23 out of pocket between gas and food so that wasn’t too bad.

Jay also had an event that we were concerned was going to be a challenge but he ended up only spending $2- Yeah Jay.

Money Spent- $25 (Heather $23 at event, Jay $2)

Day 10

3/6- No news to report today. Work, soccer practice, and a movie at the elementary school where they supplied the popcorn- D and I watched Madagascar 2.

Money Spent- $24 (gas for Jays car to go on archery trip Saturday)

Day 9

3/5- D started soccer lessons tonight and he loved it. He was so cute running around the field with his tiny cleats and shin guards on. When we left he told me it was awesome and asked if he got to go to it again. He was very happy to hear that he gets to back every Thursday for 8 weeks.

I would also like to note that I have been cooking so much more this week and it really hasn’t been a big deal. One of my goals for the weekend is to dig into the freezer and see what sort of meals I can make for the next week. I keep finding all sorts of yummy things in there to add together.

I am planning to go to the grocery store on Sunday but so far don’t have much on the list-oil, honey, cereal, milk and maybe toilet paper. I am trying to decide if frozen waffles are a need (ha ha). My boys are getting tired of cereal and I have not much luck in the past with freezing leftover waffles or pancakes. Maybe I will take one more shot at making them and then break down and get some if that doesn’t work.

I am also going to try to spend less than $30 on Sunday to make up for my overage last week. That might be a stretch- I will let you know how it turns out.

Money Spent- $25 (gas for Heathers car)