The Kehrer Family

 

My No Spend Month starts today!

So I have gotten a little more into blogs lately and coupled with my Pinterest obsession (because for serious, who isn’t obsessed these days), I have stumbled across the idea of a No Spend Month.  The idea is based on a family of 3 or 4 people who are only allowed to spend $250 on extra “stuff”.  Necessities like groceries, gas, and bills don’t count. 

I want to do this a little different.  I really can’t include my husband because we somewhat keep our finances separate for the time being.  He (we) have number of rental properties which he is sinking a lot of money in at the moment.  I will write more about our lovely (cough, cough) rental properties sometime.  Right now they are consuming our lives to the point where I don’t want to think about them! 

So, I want to try and spend $300 between now and July 20^th.  That will be $75 a week.  This includes groceries and gas but does not include any bills.  Make sense?  Sound difficult?  Only time will tell.  What worries me about this is tomorrow, for example, I will have to get gas.  $60 right there!  Ugh!  Then I believe I have a hair appointment on July 18^th.  Dangit.  $120 right there!  Double ugh!  That got me thinking….there is not much I can do on gas.  My commute is like nothing and that will probably last me 2 weeks.  But the hair thing, hmmm.  Maybe I can work on that. 

I have a few reasons for wanting to do this.  For starters, ok I admit it, I have a teensy bit of credit card debt I’m paying off.  Ok maybe more than a teensy bit.  Let me put it this way.  It’s under $5k.  I know, I know, geez I was living on a single income for like ever.  It’s so much harder than living on two incomes.  That being said, with my townhouse being sold (fingers crossed till closing in 2-3 weeks), every cent I earn goes right to paying that off.  So…another two to three months, and that should be gone.   My second reason is, I need a new car.  Ok, I take that back.  I don’t need a new car, I want one.  See my problem here?  (However, the front console of my car is being held together by a rubberband)  The sooner I can pay off that debt, the sooner I can start socking moola away for a slightly used, super chic, SUV.  A white Nissan Rogue is at the top of my list right now.  That may change by the end of the day.    My third reason is, that when we have little Kehrer’s running around (which I hope is sooner than later), I would really like to be able to stay at home with them.  This will entail living off of my husband’s income, which he makes a good living, but that doesn’t mean we will have money for me to spend my days shopping and hitting up the local spa.  Not by a long shot.  So I figure this would be good practice. 

We have SO much food in our pantry and fridge, not to mention about 400 pounds of steak and ribs downstairs in our freezer.  Brian bought a half a cow awhile back.  Great investment if you are thinking about doing it!  We should have enough food to not do much grocery shopping for awhile.  Hamburger helper anyone???

I will post in one week to let you know my status.  Wish me luck!