January: No Spend Year

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We survived our January No Spend and it was awesome! After reading The Year of Less, I decided that I really wanted to give it a try. Cait Flanders goes month by month to show how she did a year of not buying anything. Totally something I would have done when I was single. But now I have a growing family and a home, so I had to modify the rules just a little bit.

If you missed the first blog post in this series, check out my No Spend Year Blog Post. But essentially I listed our rules below. We are planning for two date nights a month. We also each have $30 in personal spending money. This helps keep it a little more realistic while still pushing us to do our best. One rule I did set was that if I sold something, I could purchase a similar item.

It is no secret that 2020 was hard for a lot of people. Because of that, we were extra determined to make 2021 better! The whole purpose of the year is to be extra intentional with our money and to focus on hitting some big goals. We sat down and created a mini-guide for how we wanted the year to go.

No spending money on:

• Takeout coffee
• Unplanned fast food/restaurants
• Snacks/gas station stops
• New home improvement projects until we are debt free
• Home decor/ organization stuff
• New clothing

Lessons learned during January No Spend

The 3 Hole Punch

New Year’s Eve, right before our challenge started. I sat at my computer and thought about all of the things that I wanted to buy before our No Spend Year started. I started thinking about things that I hadn’t thought about purchasing in forever. Mentally, I knew this challenge was going to be hard, but I don’t think I was truly prepared for it.

A 3 hole punch was at the top of my list. I was working on trying to put together our Ultimate Budget Binder for 2021. I don’t think I have ever thought about how I needed one until that point. So I sent my sister in law a message because she is an avid follower of my blog and our journey. She had one! My SIL said that she is pretty sure that she bought it on impulse and hasn’t used it more than once or twice since. She didn’t have one for me to keep, but she let me borrow hers until I found one. I then asked my mom and she had an extra one that I was able to take home!

During this challenge, I have started to keep a list of all of the things that I thought about purchasing. I have been writing down the date, the item. Then I left a blank space for if we do get the item and how we got it. I am excited to watch how long we can go without some items or if I do really need them.

Libby App

Since I started, I have been reading a ton during naptime! I recently learned about the Libby app! The Libby app (not sponsored) is a free app that you can link your library card to and access your local library’s e-book collection. I have been searching the Libby app for all of the books that I have been wanting to read this year. Definitely recommend using your library as a resource if you aren’t currently using it!

Meal Planning

I have noticed that I am a lot more intentional with the meals that I put on our meal plan. We went through and made a list of all of the meals that we ever eat. The list gave me a huge boost of ideas for meal planning. I don’t write down things that we likely won’t eat or that take a lot of prep work because I know that with a 6 month old little boy, neither of us want to spend a ton of time in the kitchen. The marker board meal planning has been key to keeping our grocery bill under control while eating every meal at home.

Business Money

One thing I did notice was that I am quicker to use business money to buy things if they fit into the business so I use it as an expense vs using the profit to purchase these items! I will have to be really clear about what is business spending and what is personal spending. My goal is to not add too many things to business expenses this year too, but I know it isn’t realistic to do absolutely no spending on that side. I am using The Savvy Business Budget Workbook to get a lot better about my business budget!

Spending Review for January No Spend:

Bills	$1,886
Groceries	$303.27
Gasoline	$133.56
Clothing	$50
Baby	$60
Dates	$29.52
Car Maintenance	$19.71
Personal Spending	$60
Unbudgeted Spending	$100

Things we did spend money on:

We did have to purchase new winter work boots for Brandon. His work reimburses boots up to $50 a year, so we were waiting until after the first of the year to get that money! This is reflected in the clothing spending.

We decided to get new phones. As someone who primarily runs two online businesses, it is nice to be able to have a phone that works well. My iPhone 6s was consistently shutting off before it was dead and it was no longer updating. Many of my apps were no longer working because my phone was so outdated. I was tired of not having a functioning phone. We switched phone companies and got a deal on both of our phones. We spent about $70 total to get the phones and cases. It will be about $40 more a month than we were paying, but we both have new phones and insurance on them! This is in the miscellaneous unbudgeted category of our spending.

I bought the EZPZ First Foods Set for Carter. There are a lot of benefits to starting with an open cup. The bowl also suctions to his tray so I am excited to watch him learn to feed himself over time. Solids have been a whole new adventure and I would rather buy one nice set to wash regularly than one hundred cheap plates and spoons to clutter our kitchen. I searched for it forever and found it on Mercari for $18 (retails for $35). I had a $10 Mercari credit, so I ended up paying $8 out of pocket. Carter did have $12 in his envelope from selling some of his stuff, so technically it wasn’t breaking the rules, but I am keeping the cash in there for other things! This is included in the baby category along with diapers.

Our last spend day was a new dishwasher. This has been something on my list since June or July. Our dishwasher never really cleaned dishes well and we have been keeping an eye out for a while. We found one on Facebook Marketplace for $50 and needed about $30 worth of parts to put it in. That being said, we are still having some issues with it, so I am not counting this as a win until it is fully functional. We used some Christmas cash for the dishwasher, but the $30 is in the miscellaneous unbudgeted category of our spending.

Progress Made During January No Spend:

• Income: $1200 Stimulus + $2,506
• Debt Paid Off: $1,119
• Money Added to Savings: $88

• Starting Debt: $21,389
• Starting Savings: $1,530
• Ending Debt: $20,017
• Ending Savings: $1,618

Overall Thoughts of January No Spend Year:

Overall, I am really proud of our progress. I am excited to watch this year as we grow. One of the biggest things I have noticed is that we communicated about money a lot better since we are not spending extra money. We have a lot more of an idea of what is going on every payday. It has definitely helped us stress less. I am very excited to see if we can keep up the progress as a family all year and see how we do with it!

Brandon said, “I didn’t realize how much I spend on stupid stuff.” He has been such a trooper with all of my crazy plans, but I know that he knows it will be worth it in the future when we hit our money goals!

Let’s Bring on February!

 

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