My 30 Day Challenge for the month of September is a spending freeze, meaning no spending outside of the necessities.
Why A Spending Freeze?
I will confess that I have a shopping habit. It’s not for clothes or decoration or even anything big, but I still shop for a lot of stuff. There was a time when Amazon was delivering multiple times a week.
As I looked around my house, there was too much stuff. Things that were duplicated, things we weren’t using, things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but never were implemented…I felt smothered.
Add to that that money is tight right now…and I wanted to see if I could do a spending freeze.
My Spending Freeze Rules
My rules for this are very simple: I can spend money on food at the grocery store, and on certain items that are a necessity where I do not have a substitute alread in the house.
Milk, bread and eggs? Yes. Other ingredients? It depends. Using up what is in the pantry comes first. Contact solution? Yes. Soap on sale? No (I have a stock that needs to be used). Sponges for the Roomba? No (I have reusable ones without soap)
In addition, I am doing my shopping online and comparing prices. My goal is to not put a foot into the stores at all. Amazon, Target, Kroger, Petsmart, Walmart – all of these stores offer either delivery or pickup.
What I Hope To Gain
From this habit, there are a few things I hope to gain:
- Breaking the spending habit. Now that I’ve recognized my tendency, I want to break my habit of spending money needlessly.
- Use things up. I have stockpiles of a lot of things, particularly bath supplies and staples. I am working on using them up.
- Paring down the stuff. While this will happen somewhat through using things up, I am also culling things.
Want to join me?
If you’d like to do a spending freeze with me, let me know! You can leave a comment on this post on Facebook, or Tweet me with #30DaySpendingFreeze.
