Friday, November 09, 2007

Friday Frivolity and No-Spend November

Aaron is off with the youth group for bowling and an overnighter at the church. They will undoubtedly eat too much pizza and Red Vines as they play Sardines until daylight returns or injury occurs (we all recall the cries of "Nancy's down!"). Funny to be missing it. Funny too to have a Friday night home without him, which I often enjoy, but to have a baby girl here keeping me from spending all night with guilty pleasures on TV and from the fridge. Although the night ain't over yet. I might get my quarterly Conan fix.

I have declared it No-Spend November in our house. Aaron was going to participate in No-Shave November with Waltino, but he didn't want to preach this Sunday looking like a hobo.

No-Spend November means bare minimum spending--no going out to eat, no buying things for the house, no extra grocery shopping (except buying more fresh items like milk). No way this will work, probably, with Thanksgiving and my mom coming and all, but it's a goal.

Today I dropped off three bills at local business offices to ensure I wouldn't need to buy $1.46 of stamps in November. Actually I was just making everything take as long as possible since I was enjoying being out of the house alone, just because I could. It should be called No-Life November.

What are your tips for making the month's cash last longer? How do you amuse yourselves, stretch meals, save gas, defer the repo men, etc.?

6 comments:

RMMcDowell said...

Make Mom pay for everything!

Sorry . . . that's the only tip I've EVER had for saving money . . . :)

How about "No Shame November"?

Cat Hoemke said...

I'm sure you're doing everything I would suggest. (budgeting, spending freeze, groceries instead of premade meals, large chunk of cash out for the month instead of little $2 fees from ATMS, buy what you can in bulk, Turn off lights in rooms not used, Don't fiddle with the thermostat, etc.)

My folks are big on the whole coupon/different stores thing. I usually just try to buy what is on sale in the store at the time I am there. This is because I am lazy.

What I've learned about budgeting:
- Evaluate if you really need all the stuff you're paying for. Cancel what you can, consolidate if it will save money
- Set a budget for paying off debt. You loose a lot of cash to finance charges if you leave it to the minimum payment each month.
- Set a "discretionary fund" for each person in the household including Anna. It might be just $10 a month, but that gives each person the freedom to "splurg" without binging. It also lets a family member save up for something big without taking a big cut out of the monthly budget.

So I'm sure you're doing all this, but if any of it helps, all the better.

Unknown said...

Fear Not! I'm in a week from Wednesday ! :) Seriously, my Mom rescued us several times by bringing a bag of groceries of things that were on sale etc. Hon, I cannot imagine that there's one darn more thing that you can do to save a nickel! love you forever, mom

Wendy said...

What the...?!? Did my MOM just make a Blogger account? Weren't you JUST telling me you needed help commenting?

End of world pending! ;)

Anonymous said...

Miracles do occur! Your aunt has even figured out this blog commenting thing too! This is even the second time for me!

Hang in there with the spending thing. It isn't easy to do.

Cat Hoemke said...

It's like a family reunion!!! :D