A Few Miner Adjustments

30 Day Spending Freeze....

Did we achieve our goal?

We're done. Finally!

If you are just tuning in, we did a 30 day spending freeze. Here are all the links to the series....

30 Day Spending Freeze

Week 1 - Spending

Will Power According to Frog and Toad

Finding Balance

Week 3 - Spending


I have to say, this time around was much more difficult than the first time we did it in 2010.  There were a couple weeks where we didn't have anything going on, so it was easy to just live without shopping.

However, there was traveling for Matt's marathon (Yay, Matt! You ran your first marathon! I am so proud of you.) So that was extra money spent on gas. And we signed B-Bear up for Boy Scouts.

Although... my super cool dad bought us pizza from our favorite pizza place when we were home.  Is that cheating? Having someone else buy our meal? Who cares...that pizza was so good.  Plus, the kids are older and saying no to bounce houses was well...impossible. 

Anyhow, this is the break down for this week's spending...

Gas for Car #1			$58.48
Gas for Car #2			$54.25
Bread at Freihofer's Outlet			$9.37
Post Office			$20.00
Groceries			$166.49
Bounce House @ Fall Festival			$20.00
	Total Spending for this week		$328.59
	Total spending for the freeze		$1,625.89
	Total Extra Savings		$374.11

We didn't make our goal of saving an extra $500, but we still managed to save more than other months. 

Was this a success?  

I think it was. I'm not going to beat myself up over $125.89

What did I learn this time around?

{1.} Some of the things we thought we needed right then and there, well, we really didn't need.  Frankly, I can't even remember what they were.

{2.}  It feels so darn good to save extra money. Next month we will go back to our normal budget, so this truly was extra money found/ saved. 

{3.} If we do this freeze again, it will not be during a month when we have charities, school obligations, fun fall activities going on.  That made it super difficult to say no and stay on task. Although for the most part we did it. Maybe January, right after Christmas would be easier.

Thanks for following this series.  I hope you enjoyed it and maybe you were successful with a spending freeze of your own.  I'd love to hear about it!

Enjoy your extra savings!

{Trina}