It's that time of year again...

Here we go again! It's time for No-Spend February, which is a way to analyze and adjust a person or family's financial budgeting approach, and most importantly, reign in frivolous spending.
We have done this before, but let's summarize, in case new people want to participate this year:
The idea is to only spend money on the "four walls" that are necessary to live, while cutting out all other spending for an entire month. The four walls are:
Shelter
Basic food requirements
Transportation
Utilities/Bills
No clothing, eating out, entertainment/gaming/events, drinking, smoking, lottery tickets, Starbucks lattes, random app purchases, NO GOING TO THE MOVIES. A tough one for the MoFos, which will have most of them not joining in, I am sure!
*If you like road snacks, buy them at the grocery store and bring them with you etc. Make coffee at home and bring it with you etc. Sorry New Englanders: NO DUNKIN DONUTS!
There are exceptions: Car repair, medical emergencies, prescriptions etc. Just use common sense here.
Tracker sheets and planning aids for no-spend months are widely available online. Just Google and grab whichever one suits your fancy.
Some helpful hints:
Tell your friends/family, both to ensure accountability and to let people know your usual hang out session won't include your usual food delivery order.
No cheat days!
If an item comes up that you want, make a list, and assess it in a need vs want comparison at end of month - this is one of the main reasons for doing this: assessing needs vs. wants.
Use a spending tracking sheet or a finance app to monitor all transactions.
In summary, the object here to to quash instant gratification through spending, curb or halt retail therapy (see: my wife), and inculcate better habits when analyzing wants vs needs.
As an aside, this is good time to analyze bills, try to knock some down if possible, and perhaps adjust how you go grocery shopping by trying to find bulk deals, use coupons and things of that nature. Also a good time to analyze entertainment funding, whether or not streaming has gotten out of hand, gaming etc.
One example is that you can try to call your internet company, threaten them with moving your service because the other company will offer you the same service for $XX.XX, and either actually move your service, or get them to knock 40 bucks off your bill.
When grocery shopping: Avoid the aisles in the middle of the store that contain candy, snacks, and random stuff like magazines and books. Never buy snacks or candy while checking out, and always check each area of an aisle you are buying an item in vertically, as the store s tend to place the worst deals at eye level while stashing better deals on the lowest and highest shelves. Check unit prices to make sure you are getting the best prices for any given item.
I will be using this thread to track my progress, and hopefully this year I can avoid buying a car during No-Spend February!

Here we go again! It's time for No-Spend February, which is a way to analyze and adjust a person or family's financial budgeting approach, and most importantly, reign in frivolous spending.
We have done this before, but let's summarize, in case new people want to participate this year:
The idea is to only spend money on the "four walls" that are necessary to live, while cutting out all other spending for an entire month. The four walls are:
Shelter
Basic food requirements
Transportation
Utilities/Bills
No clothing, eating out, entertainment/gaming/events, drinking, smoking, lottery tickets, Starbucks lattes, random app purchases, NO GOING TO THE MOVIES. A tough one for the MoFos, which will have most of them not joining in, I am sure!
*If you like road snacks, buy them at the grocery store and bring them with you etc. Make coffee at home and bring it with you etc. Sorry New Englanders: NO DUNKIN DONUTS!
There are exceptions: Car repair, medical emergencies, prescriptions etc. Just use common sense here.
Tracker sheets and planning aids for no-spend months are widely available online. Just Google and grab whichever one suits your fancy.
Some helpful hints:
Tell your friends/family, both to ensure accountability and to let people know your usual hang out session won't include your usual food delivery order.
No cheat days!
If an item comes up that you want, make a list, and assess it in a need vs want comparison at end of month - this is one of the main reasons for doing this: assessing needs vs. wants.
Use a spending tracking sheet or a finance app to monitor all transactions.
In summary, the object here to to quash instant gratification through spending, curb or halt retail therapy (see: my wife), and inculcate better habits when analyzing wants vs needs.
As an aside, this is good time to analyze bills, try to knock some down if possible, and perhaps adjust how you go grocery shopping by trying to find bulk deals, use coupons and things of that nature. Also a good time to analyze entertainment funding, whether or not streaming has gotten out of hand, gaming etc.
One example is that you can try to call your internet company, threaten them with moving your service because the other company will offer you the same service for $XX.XX, and either actually move your service, or get them to knock 40 bucks off your bill.
When grocery shopping: Avoid the aisles in the middle of the store that contain candy, snacks, and random stuff like magazines and books. Never buy snacks or candy while checking out, and always check each area of an aisle you are buying an item in vertically, as the store s tend to place the worst deals at eye level while stashing better deals on the lowest and highest shelves. Check unit prices to make sure you are getting the best prices for any given item.
I will be using this thread to track my progress, and hopefully this year I can avoid buying a car during No-Spend February!

__________________
“Film can't just be a long line of bliss. There's something we all like about the human struggle.” ― David Lynch