The Spending Strike { my update}

The Spending Strike { my update}

Earlier this month I posted that I was going on a Spending Strike.. .sorta!

I was inspired from The Spending Strike by Sarah Baker.For 30 days, Sarah and her family vowed not to spend any more (besides the necessities) and find ways to be creative. She wrote about each day and tracked their spending.

Well, January is always a good month for change and finding ways to save money. In addition to participating in my own version of the Spending Strike, I am also doing the 52 week money challenge. Definitely be sure to check that out and join us!

I must say that finding ways to be creative this month without spending money has been a challenge but a fun one!

I will say that I have spent money and I will tell you what I’ve spent it on:

Usually every Friday night we order pizza from Little Caesars or Dominos. So far we have cut back on that and found something else to eat around the house or made our own pizza. So far this  has saved us $35 bucks.

The boys usually also buy Pizza at school each Friday, which averages $11 each Friday. So far not doing this (and also no school on 2 Fridays) saved us $33 bucks

At the beginning of the month we had quite a few snow days.  I wanted to get the boys out the house to go and see a few movies. They wanted to see Frozen and The Hobbit. Instead we found other movies to watch, so this saved us $50 bucks.

We usually grab snacks and Wendy’s at least 1-2 times during the week after school or on the weekends. We have been doing great and cut back on eating out. This has saved us another $30 bucks so far.

I had a hair appointment this month which would have included a color treatment and I decided to cancel it. That was a saving of $60 bucks. I am going to see if I can match the color and do the touch up myself. Or wait till I can find a coupon to one of my favorite salons or figure out a way to get this done a little cheaper.

So what have I spent money on:

Well, I did buy groceries/stock up deals- Total spent on all shopping trips – $111.62 from the 1/1- 1/14. You can view the full details for those trips in my weekly shopping post. 

Gas- I can easily spend $60 bucks per week on gas. However I tried to be very conservative and have only put in about $55 bucks in my tank since January 1st (and it’s the 19th). So I have saved myself an estimate of $60 bucks so far.

This budget normally would have been $150, so I saved a little over $38 bucks from my bi-weekly grocery budget.

I also could not pass up on a going out of business sale at my local The Children’s Place store. One of my stores was closing and everything was marked up to 80% off. I was able to score jeans for about $4 bucks. Now I know this was not an item that I just HAD to buy… wait I did. My oldest son- Ziah is in need of new pants– he’s growing like a weed and to score khaki pants and jeans for around $4 bucks was a deal that I NEEDED to score to continue  my overall savings on clothes, etc.

I also took myself to the movies this weekend for a little Mommy time. Usually Mommy time includes a pedi, eyebrows, etc but I just did the movies for $7 bucks. So I saved about $60 bucks by going with a cheaper alternative.

I bypassed shopping the Target clearance deals, including the 70% off on toys. I could have easily spent about $50 bucks or so on toys for my stockpile closet.

So that’s my update so far! How do you think I’m doing so far?

Are you doing this Spending Strike Challenge? If so, let me know and you can always feel free to join in– even if it’s only for a week!

Be sure to check out the book The Spending Strike by Sarah Baker.