No Spend February -- well not so much

The black hole that is my family's spending habits changed a wee bit -- but not enough to write home about or even blog about -- yet will share my results with you (all two of you) anyway.

I have to say, reading some of these blogs where people save thousands on their no spend month and have these a-ha moments like being able to live with a budget of 300$ for groceries for a family of one hundred, makes me feel like a colossal failure.

Well, not really, I have a lot going for me.

Frugality is just not one of them.

sigh.

I did actually learn some things though with my attempt at a "no spend" month. 1. I suck at it. 2. There are some things that I nor my family missed, and 3. I do not have good control or even understanding of my finances or finances in general.

Here's how it ended:

	January	February
Groceries	1362	1648
Going out	783	164
Home improvement	67	517 (stupid garage opener)
Toll road	50	5
School lunches	200	0

Total savings:

128$

Yup

I suck at this.

Here's the strange thing.

I didn't go into over draft

I may have saved money on utilities because we kept our heat lower, didn't use our gas fire place and were better at turning off lights.

I somehow paid extra on our credit card and got our savings up by 700$.

At the beginning of March, I had enough to pay for my class outright, rather than putting it on the credit card.

I did work some extra hours for an extra 300$ this month.

The math for the extra payment, my school, and extra savings though doesn't work out. Maybe it's because I was a little (though not much) more aware of our spending and things that creep in that I maybe didn't record were a greater savings than realized?

All in all -- what I'm taking from this month is:

I don't need to take the toll road -- I didn't save much time doing it and it's not worth 3$ a day.

We can continue to make the boys' lunches.

If I'm better prepared, we can make sandwiches for game days and keep the fast food at bay.

Home purchases are going up though as we move into summer and work on our back yard as well as finishing our basement this year.

We'll do this again in the fall -- with hopefully better results. Since I won't be in school, I'll also take more time to really make a more detailed accounting of our spending habits as well as take an average of the year to have a better idea of what we spend and what we actually save during a 'no spend' month.

For now? Well, we'll definitely eat out less, we'll continue to make lunches, and we'll not take the toll road - as well as reduce our heat and turn off lights. I'll try and be more aware of what I'm spending at the store and plan less expensive meals.

It's a learning curve

well in my case a learning arc -- like the size of the St. Louis one.

no spend February - bag lunching it

So a week into it -- we're not doing too badly, haven't really felt the 'pinch' so much.  There were a couple of times I really wanted to head over to Starbucks but I just made myself a cup of coffee and that was just as good. Well not really but it gave me my warm soothing caffeine fix. The first day I forgot I wasn't going to use the toll road and ended up on the toll road on the way to Costco but on our way back home used the more scenic longer route.  I also used the toll road one other time -- I accidentally left some narcotics in my pocket and didn't realize it until I got home (UGH) and I was soooooo tired. Like on my third night shift in a row tired. So instead of taking the long way to work, I took the direct toll road so I could get back to the hospital as quickly as I could, returned the meds and came home and fell asleep -- like fell asleep still in my scrubs AND coat.

The boys ran out of their lunch money -- so they get to brown bag it from now on -- not a bad lunch. I actually think it'll be healthier for them if we make their lunches.  I'm just going to have to be less lazy and get them their lunches made --- or better yet, let them make their own lunches -- but then if they did that they would just take a bag of chips.

Jason and I went to a funeral today. It was for a brother of one of my high school friends. He died of a stroke (only three years older than myself). He had kids my kids' ages. It was so sad to see how devastated they were by the loss of their father. It was lunch time when we were leaving and Jason mentioned he had a gift certificate for Bonefish Grill. We weren't really ready to go home yet, we wanted to just spend some time together after the funeral.  So we drove by and saw they were open. Turns out this was their 'soft' opening for lunch (they were only open during dinners before) and the whole menu was free.

FREEEeeeee wheeeee

so for 7 dollars for the tip we got a fabulous meal!

If you ever go there, try the edamame hummus.

What have I learned so far:
1. I only get to work like a couple minutes later by using side roads instead of toll roads -- will keep going that way
2. Probably won't save any money on heating bills by going down in temp (or at least feel like it) because it's been so cold our heater has been on non-stop (13 below --brrrr) we still have it set at 66.
3. We didn't go into over draft before we got paid today -- it's been awhile since we didn't dip into over draft (we were really close -- but never dipped down).
4. We're not going to get away without having to buy a garage door opener this month (insert frowny face).
5. Found a target gift certificate so got 15 dollars off of our last grocery trip.....I don't know why I never use gift certificates -- but it's working in our favor this month because it's helping us out in no spend February.
6. The kids aren't really complaining yet about it (this may change by the end of the month).

Healthy Version of Shepherd's Pie

Jason's been in the mood for some comfort food and he specifically asked for Shepherd's pie. But Shepherd's pie isn't really on the super healthy side of things and so I tried to come up with a healthier yet yummy version....and I did. And now I'm going to share it with you.

 Potato topping was a combo of cauliflower and potatoes, instead of whipping cream, butter, cheese, whatever, I used fat free greek yogurt

 Lots of sauteed vegetables

 Combination of lean beef and turkey

 and I used vegetable broth to deglaze the pan and tomato sauce and worcestershire sauce for flavoring (and some pepper and parsley)

 One for us, one to give a way and one for the freezer

  And dinner was a hit for everyone...even hubby, who didn't look very convinced when I was putting it all together.

The Recipe:

3 pounds 93%/ lean ground beef
1 pound 93% lean ground turkey
1 cup of chopped up carrots
1 cup of chopped up celery
2 cups chopped up mushrooms (Isaac didn't even know they were in there)
1-2 tablespoons of garlic
1 package of frozen peas
1/4 cup of worcestershire sauce
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
2 cups of vegetable broth
3 pounds of potatoes
1 head of cauliflower
1 cup of fat free Fage greek yogurt
pepper and parsley to taste (I didn't add salt because of the worcestershire sauce and vegetable broth)

boil potatoes w/ skin and steam cauliflower, whip with yogurt and set aside.
while boiling and steaming, saute vegetables
set aside
brown mean
mix with vegetables
deglaze pan with vegetable broth and pour into meat mixture
add peas, tomato sauce, pepper & worcestershire sauce

Divide evenly between 3 8x8 pans and top with potato mixture
sprinkle pepper and parsley on top

freeze two and bake one at 350, covered for 45 minutes and uncovered for 5 minutes.

ENJOY

each 8x8 serves 10
calories 162, fat 4.5, carbohydrates 15, protein 15, sodium 247, fiber 2g

Update on no spend February

well bought a new fancy lock for the front door -- the premise was to save energy on using the garage door to get in and out and to hopefully save the garage door opener which has been acting up lately for another month.  It's a key pad lock because the kids always lose their keys.

also totally spaced the no spend thing and ended up on the toll road...but we remembered and took the more scenic less expensive way home.

did remember no spend February started today and did NOT partake in my post watched my kid play basket ball Latte at Starbucks (and by the way my kid scored more than half the points -- they still lost, but Jake did great :D)

No Spend February (well at least we're going to try it)

Pinterest is amazing in the ideas that people have and share. One that I've seen going around is a 'no spend month'.  Different blogs have different ways of doing this, but the gist is -- don't spend on things that aren't necessary and spend less on things that are necessary. Here
are  a couple of blogs where they did this successfully: Click here (small Notebook) and here (motherhood on a dime) There's a ton out there, just google 'no spend month' -- or get on Pinterest.

For me this is a reminder about what is necessary.
And to teach my spoiled, entitled children the difference between need and want. (I write this like it's all them, but in truth this was totally a parenting fail on my part)
(If I am going to be totally honest, I too am a little spoiled and also need to know the difference between need and want -- ugh).

For us our family rules are going to be:

No lunches out (I work nights, so this isn't a problem for me -- now for Jason? We shall see)
One dinner out for Jason and me which will include paying our older son for babysitting (it's for Valentine's) We did get a gift certificate to PF Chang's for Christmas and we saved it knowing this was coming up.
Minimize our groceries -- by 1. shopping our freezer and pantry (it'll be a good way to figure out what's in the back of our freezer and get rid of stuff as well as save money). 2. More vegetarian meals. 3. Eat more basic meals, no fancy 20 ingredient fancy spices meals. 4. Limit entertaining --we do cook extra meals every week for my sister and brother in law, as she has MS and they could use the help -- so we will continue to at least shop for two meals a week and double the recipes for ourselves -- but this experiment is a lesson on how we can get on less, not how to stop helping those we love). 5. We also got a gift certificate to Sprouts for Christmas, so we've got a couple of dollars to go towards groceries this month.
No clothes shopping this month, we have enough. Period.
We prepaid Jake's batting lessons, and there are no tournaments in February, so we should be good there. We decided on reducing his pitching lessons to two days this month instead of four. (That'll save us 80$ right there). We've already paid for league fees and most of his uniform (there will probably be another payment in February, depends on how well the team did in fundraising).
Isaac's karate tournament is in April, so we probably don't have to pay until March.
I will wash our own dog and clean my own house this month (I did mention I was spoiled -- feeling that as I type right now).
We will pay  however for someone to clean my in-laws house, because I don't have time to do both.
No new home projects, instead we will use what we have to clean the house up (touch up paint, clean baseboards etc). We will also clean out our basement this month.
I will have tuition and books to pay for this month, that's an expense we will just have to deal with, unfortunately (my long term plan, however is to continue to nurse and work part time as a nursing instructor until I have paid us back for the tuition, THEN just be a nursing instructor).
No more pay-per-view movies, but we will get Netflix -- we also already got rid of our premium cable channels.
Yes on the Kuerig cups, NO on Starbuck's (although again, we both got gift certificates for SB at Christmas and have been saving them for this month -- but for getting together with friends or if we can squeeze in another date night).
Reduce our heater temperature control to 66 at night and during the day, kick it up to 68 when we're home. I'm the only one that's cold, and I can put on a sweater. Don't run our fire place. TURN OFF LIGHTS (I type as I reach over and turn off the lamp next to me)!
Wash our own cars
For this month, I'll buy some box hair dye, and catch up with the highlights in March. I was kicking around the idea of growing my hair out, so this will be a good opportunity to get a head start.

I'm also going to add how to bring in some extra income -- during this month:
1. I signed up for extra shifts -- however we've been over-staffed so I haven't been working any that I signed up for, in fact have been getting my actual scheduled shifts cut too.
2. When we clean out basement we'll need to set things aside for a big garage sale -- and Ebay/Craigslist

It's not that I want to suck the joy out of life -- I just want us to get back on track. We need to remember
what the important things are in life -- it's not what we can buy, spend etc -- it's about family, friends.

With that said, I'm in no way one of these people who think money is bad, or even corrupt. I just know that I have become relaxed about our debt, our financial goals, and what money really means -- it's just too easy to spend, even when we don't have it.  This month will help us all come to terms with what money means to us, what we need to sacrifice if we want to achieve our goals (and wouldn't it be nice to achieve paying off our house like this blogger did? Or even get our credit cards paid off (AGAIN) and maybe NOT run them up (AGAIN).

We'll see how it goes -- I'll keep you informed.
and Pray that our garage door opener lasts until March -- it's been acting up.