This No-Spend Stuff is Harder than it Looks

I confess, it's the end of day 2 of Sharon's no-spend challenge, and I've already fallen off the wagon twice.  And yesterday, I had a migraine, making it the ultimate no-spend day.  So yes, that's twice in one day.

Mistake number 1:  At Woman's Club today, one of our members asked for small donations to The Smile Train.  She is involved through a friend who is super-involved; the friend has adopted four children from foreign orphanages who had such severe cleft palate that they needed multiple operations over multiple years.  Who could resist a story like that?  I immediately wrote a small cheque.  I was halfway down the road back home before I remembered that I wasn't supposed to spend any money from my toy budget this month.  Ooops!

Mistake Number 2: A family friend came into town, and my parents invited us out to dinner to visit with him.  It's about a 40 mile round trip, and we took my gas guzzler rather than my husband's economy car, thus using two gallons of premium gas instead of one gallon of regular gas.  In our defense, it's below freezing, and here in Southwest Louisiana, we consider that very cold.  And my gas guzzler has heated seats, and much better heating.  This was a smaller lapse in terms of percentage of budget, but I need to watch this sort of thing if I am going to cut my household expenses in half this month.  And once again, it wasn't a conscious decision, I just got in the comfier car without thinking about it.  Doh!

As of today:
Food Budget: 100% left
Household budget - 100% left
Toy Budget - 1% over

As for the Shape Up For March Challenge, well, let's just say it's a good thing that it doesn't officially start until Friday.  A migraine yesterday and dinner out today meant that I have now worked out zero times this month.  Tomorrow we are predicted to have freezing rain; if the driving conditions are as unsafe as the weatherman has indicated, I'm not going to the gym.  On the plus side, if I can't leave the house tomorrow either, I am practically guaranteed a no-spend day (unless Murphy visits and my pipes freeze and burst tonight).

It's not too late to sign up for the No-Spend or the Shape Up Challenge.  And I've very nicely gone and set the bar low already!