No Spend & No Sugar – Week 1

Yowzer! Who would’ve thought there’d be such interest from you all in what I wasn’t even sure we should write about (since it’s not technically paleo)… our resolution to make January a No Spend month. I’ve gotten a disproportionate amount of requests to talk more about it – both on the blog and the podcast, so… here’s the nitty gritty.

A Recap

We’ve been doing no spend month for one week now and I can honestly say the first week was MUCH harder than the 21 Day Sugar Detox we’re also doing.

However, I’ve realized – with just ONE WEEK – on the plan, exactly where our issues with spending are. I thought we’d feel the change in impulse purchases which quench our self indulgent nature. I’m known for over-indulging the boys’ especially.

I go to a store for 1 thing and they sucker me into buying them each something before we leave. Every time we go anywhere it’s “Mommy, can we get Redbox? Mommy can we get a new Pokemon pack ($4)? Mommy can we get more of the flavor of Larabars I like because we only have 8,473 other snacks I don’t like as much?” And then I, who was raised by a single mother whose budget limited our ability to buy just about anything, am driven to want to make sure they feel secure and provided for… so I spoil them. Rotten.

Avoiding Self Indulgence – Wants

But indulgent spending has actually been the easiest to avoid. I don’t need to go to the store. And when I do, I take a list. And if they ask me for something I say, “We’re not buying that right now, remember? Just only things we need!” And I say it in my perky voice so they know that it’s fun to have a personal challenge and say, “Oh, yeah!” and we move on. No temper tantrums. No declarative statements about how deprived and abandoned they feel.

Shockingly, it’s true what they say, they’re happy with my time and attention – it’s not the stuff I buy for them that matters. Want some examples? Here are ways I tried to choose to avoid being self-indulgent:

1. When my new Athleta catalog arrived I lamented the inability to page through and mark which I wanted to buy. I’ve got an obsession with their clothes that I swear are made out of clouds, so I posted an Instagram about the torture of it all. Vanessa of Healthy Living How To saw my photo and resultingly sent me a generous gift certificate to Athleta. I could have justified it’s not actually spending money – but, I knew that’d be self indulging on items not NEEDED and so I filed it to use as a celebratory gift in early Feb once I complete my first month of CrossFit.
2. I had purchased new jeans over the holidays and they took a long time to finally arrive at the house. When they arrived, one pair fit and one didn’t. I’d wanted 2 pairs at the time, but instead of going to the store and exchanging the 2nd pair, I kept with the spirit of the month and said I really didn’t NEED a 2nd pair – so I just returned them.
3. Our full length mirror in our bedroom broke. And as much as I thought it was a NEED to replace it, I realized there are other places in the house I can see my full body and it simply takes more effort. Not ideal – but, a replacement is a want – so I’ll try to find a used one at a Thrift store or something in February.
4. Cole got an assignment at school to do a project on Native Americans that requires a book – we don’t have one. Normally I’d just go on Amazon, have one delivered in 2 days and add it to our bookshelves, because surely we’ll have use for it again. But when Cole asked I said, “Why don’t you and Daddy go to the library and see what they have?” And he got excited about the idea!

Sales Hoarder

That said, I mentioned this was HARD. So if it’s not the self-indulgent items that’s the problem, what is painful? SALES. Oh. Em. Ghee – I had NO idea I was a sales hoarder. Evidently, I’m incapable of turning down a sale. A coupon. A discount. A clearance. Any way for me to feel like I’m saving in the long run, I love to spend more in the short!

I say that because most of the time we don’t need the item being sold! Or we use twice as much if I buy a huge amount of something than if we partitioned ourselves out with moderate purchases. Seriously… our pantry and freezers have TONS of stuff, we need NOTHING. Yet a sale comes out and I feel the need to bulk up.

The hardest part – sales! Despite insane deals, I avoided buying:

The Justifiable Mistakes

I did, however, make some purchases this week that I kind of regret. I felt justified at the time. But once they were in the house I thought, “We didn’t actually NEED that.” Here’s what I bought and why:

1.  GT’s Kombucha – It was on sale for BOGO at Whole Foods this week. Usually we patron MTO, but with a deal I’m a sucker… We realized we were low on MTO and would need to place an order in January either way. I decided to get 2 cases from Whole Foods, I got one case free and the case I paid for was 10% off. Ultimately, I don’t regret this BUT I do regret doing the remainder of my grocery shopping there as a result – I spent probably 15% than I would have at Wegman’s!
2. Pure Indian Garlic Ghee – This Ghee tastes just like Papa John’s dipping sauce. Seriously. If you haven’t tried it, do. Problem is, it’s only available on this site (that I can find). I justified buying this because it was something I tried to buy in December and said to myself, “I’ll just wait for a sale.” So, when the code PALEO-GHEE for $10 off $35 came up – Matt and I talked and decided it was a worthwhile purchase. However, to ensure we didn’t overspend, we carefully calculated the per ounce cost to see what the price was by buying a 6 pack for a bigger discount or  just the minimum to meet $35. We also calculated cost based on size of jar. Ultimately,I don’t regret this and I know we made a decision with logic, not impulse.
3. Springfield Butcher – Our local butcher had a Specialicous coupon, spend $15 and get $30 worth of meat. Although I wasn’t going to buy this because we didn’t need meat, I realized I had $30 in Specialicious “money” for referring friends. So I used those referral dollars for 2 coupons to the butcher – for use when we do need meat!

What we actually spent money on so far

So, (other than our usual bills) how much money did we spend in week 1? I hesitate to put numbers down because everyone’s budget is different. But for us, our grocery budget is looking like it’ll be half of what it usually is and what I call our “Entertaining & Shopping” budget is about 10%.

• Unique Thrift Store – $8, we had to buy a telephone for the house (only one, NEED but found used)
• Home Depot – $11, one of our toilets broke. Instead of calling a repair person, Matt figured out how to fix it himself for the cost of the part!
• Groceries $278, included some piggie parts for Beyond Bacon photo shoot, the kombucha and remaining foods for the week
• Ghee $32
• Wal-Mart/Target $65, for household items we couldn’t do without
• Gas $55, for 2 cars

We’ve made strategic choices about what we’ve purchased, where and why. It’s been the BEST exercise for our family and I’m SO glad we’re doing it. I hope this was helpful. I recommend this to all families (if you’re not already on a budget out of necessity). How’s your resolution to improve your life in 2013 going?

p.s. Stacy’s lost 7.5 lbs on the Sugar Detox. She’ll have before and after pictures of how VERY bloated she was to cause such a drastic loss so quickly!