No Buy July

I've had a lot of positive feedback about our No Buy July and questions too, so I thought I'd dedicate a post to our past month of decreased spending.

This is our 2nd year doing a No Buy July, and this year there were some changes. The take away point I want everyone to feel is do what works for you. We certainly weren't perfect but in the end seeing over a $500 savings feels empowering. I was initially inspired by posts like this http://www.sixfiguresunder.com/planning-no-spend-month/ and similar ideas found online. Growing up hearing things like " Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without", and "It's good for you to want things" ( one of my Dad's favorites!) I feel like I tend to be rather conscientious about our spending, but I also feel like we have $ that just slips away sometimes so No Buy July is a good way to see where our $ is going and see what we can change.   I have to say my family is a pretty good sport about enduring whatever great schemes I come up with.

Why July??? For me this just works and here's why: we just did a family vacation in June so just spent a decent amount of $ on having fun, eating out.., also Jayna already had a art camp scheduled and paid for, we participate in the kids bowl free program and have the family pass as well, I already had a pass paid for 10 yoga classes - so some "free "recreation was already in play. The older kids are busy with work and school and to be honest they have their own $ and if I say no to something they have some of their own $ to work. I also knew August would be a spending month preparing to buy supplies for school/college starting. Also a big thing for me about doing this in July is I'm not working this summer so I have the time to cook and plan more than I do during the school year.  Since going out to eat is one of our biggest areas of $ slipping away to, the fact that I'm home and can make our own pizza for Pizza Fridays or plan a good meal is a big deal. And as Richard says No Buy only rhymes with July.

Our tracking system: PNC bank has a virtual wallet that puts our spending into categories .  To be honest, I haven't found it overly accurate, however, I figure wherever they made errors previously, they would make again. So I looked at their spending sections and chose a few a felt we could track. I took the average of March, April and May from those sections ( leaving out June because it is kind of a spendy month with vacation) and used those numbers for my target number to be below. I used the categories of restaurants, general merchandise shopping and groceries.
Restaurants In the end we decreased restaurant spending by 76%. We kept our Summer DQ tradition of choosing a really hot day and going to DQ, then every day that summer when it gets above the previous high we get to go to DQ again. Cooking is not my favorite, but I tried to keep good meals coming so we wouldn't feel deprived. I made pizzas for Pizza Friday, upping the pizazz by making a buffalo chicken one and one with more veggies, along with traditional cheese and pepperonis. When I hurt my knee and was off kitchen duty we did break down and order food one night. Richard was prepared to cook, but had forgotten he had another commitment as well that night. It was interesting to pull the kids into looking at our spending and hearing their input. Whitney especially said she didn't really value DQ trips or pizza nights, but prefers the experience of our family all going out together. However, I know Richard really looks forward to ordering pizza and not going out after a long work week. This brings me to another key point- everyone values different things and that's ok. It's great to recognize what those things are and then work to spend $ on the things that are most valued and not let it just slip away spending less important things.
Groceries- Last year when we first tried No Buy July I spent little on groceries, using up what we what, using food storage... We ended up eating a lot of carb heavy meals, pasta, pancakes... And we felt yucky. A good reminder of the fact that what you eat matters. So this year I said I would still do grocery shopping. By adjusting our shopping from weekly to twice a month we decreased our grocery shopping by 11%.  It doesn't sound huge but if you think about how much a family of 5 spends on groceries a month, 11% is still a nice bit of change. Also, I didn't sacrifice spending less now just to have to pay more lately- so I still bought large Wegman's family packs of items, because they are so much less per pound. We ended the month with still chuck roast, steak , cheese and other items in the freezer. Another thing that I had started previously was when making a weekly shopping menu to only plan about 5 dinner meals, knowing the others could be leftovers, using what we still had or that we would end up going out- this decreases food waste.  It's true that by the time we get to the end of the 2nd week our fridge and cupboard are looking a bit bare, but there is still something that can be eaten, it may just not be as easy. Shopping twice a month does take some preparation so you eat those things that need eaten earlier than later, and making adjustments if you see something isn't being eaten to change your meal plans so it can get eaten up. Also because the time I fill up my cart with meal food, when shopping for two weeks, there is less room to buy some of those extras, also saving $.  I know that there are ways that I could have decreased our grocery budget more- rice, beans, more vegetarian meals, but I just didn't feel like that was what we should focus on  this month.
Shopping-  This was another area that saw a big decrease and really I think the biggest key was just not going to the store- although truly I think that was almost depressing to me! I did go out to buy a few things to make a care package for a friend and it felt so good to touch and look at things and be out! I also found out that I have a real weakness for chocolate because perhaps when I did go to buy something, chocolate may have ended up there too! I think a lot of our spending is just those extras that get added to our list as we are shopping.
Some things we did or did without this month:
* We enjoyed cheap outings- music on the beach, arboretum, and using free food from downloading an app, motorcycle riding.
* We delayed buying gender specific body wash, Pam cooking spray, saran wrap- knowing we had something that would do the job already.
* I put off painting my nails knowing we were very low on nail polish remover.
* We still spent $ and that was ok!
* We learned that we had extra $ that we are now putting towards a monthly car payment to pay it off earlier than later.
So that is the story of our No Buy July! I've been glad to hear that others have taken on the challenge or considering what they can do. It has made me aware that I don't want to let our $ slip away, but I want to conscientiously consider  how I want to spend it in the most meaningful way for us.

And so it goes...