What I Learned from the No-Spend Challenge

Today marks the end of the No-spend Challenge!  I ended up with 6% or my food money and 18% of my household money left over; my toy budget was blown at 49% over.  I consider it a success because I was able to pay for all the car inspections and maintenance without drawing down any of my savings.

Things I Learned From the No-Spend Challenge:

(1) Murphy is always waiting just around the corner; a financial cushion makes this an annoyance rather than a disaster.  Yeah, I knew this already, but being extra money-conscious this month definitely reinforced the message.  No sooner had I decided to spend no money from my toy budget, then my computer blew up.  Now, if I had to, I could live without a computer and do all my internet from the library.  A working computer is not a necessity like food and shelter.  But it sure was nice to have the extra cushion to just make a new computer happen painlessly.

(2) Freezers are only frugal if properly utilized.  There is way more stuff in my freezer than I had realized.  We didn't even really make a dent in the freezer this month, even though our food budget was halved.  I'm considering reworking my food budget to continue to require myself to eat from the freezer at least a couple of nights a week.  I'm really good at putting stuff up, but it's not frugal if you put it up and then it spoils before you use it.

(3) Obsessively chasing online deals is not frugal.  I buy a lot of stuff online, so I am on a ton of mailing lists.  Most of them send me an offer every day.  Before this month, I've had a list of what needs to be purchased, and every day I check the deals offered by any stores that have the items on my list until there is a really good deal on what I need.  This month, since I was buying only essentials, I deleted all of those emails without reading them and added 20 minutes of productive time to my day.  It's easy to get a good deal online; getting an excellent one is a challenge.  Spending 20 minutes a day for a week on a $1K item to save 10% might make sense; spending the same time for 10% off a $10 item does not.  I'm unsubscribing from all those deal lists and just shopping for small dollar items as I need them from now on.

Right before I started this challenge, Debt Ninja posted his belief that "[No-Spend Challenges] are just an excuse for people to pat themselves on the back."  This is the first no-spend challenge that I've ever participated in, so I didn't have an opinion at the time, but I resolved to come back to his post after this challenge was over.  I certainly didn't expect to learn anything from the challenge; I thought I'd just end up with more money at the end of the month.  This No-Spend Challenge helped me pinpoint leaks of both time and money that make my lifestyle less than optimally frugal, and I saved some money, so I'd say they can be worthwhile.

Want to be my Accountability Buddy?

Hard to believe that February is almost over!  Only 2 days left of the no-spend challenge, and, barring anything unforeseen, I should clear my food and household goals with no problem (the toy budget was blown a long time ago).  I've got 9 days left on the shape up for march challenge, but that will barely last me into March.  It's been great doing these challenges; somehow reading about other people doing the same thing makes it easier to keep myself on track.

Looking at my 2011 goals, I am doing well on all fronts except (a) practicing with carry firearm  (b) doing Flylady routines (c) connecting with my friend and (d) working on piano.

If any of these match up with something you've been thinking about getting serious about, I'd love to have an accountability blogging buddy.  Let me know if you're be interested.

Having too Much Fun to Spend Money

Today I:

Went to the library and discovered that I had 4 ILLs in ...

Read one of them on the stationary bike at the gym ...

Castrated, vaccinated, and tagged some calves, and set the rest up to finish first thing tomorrow ...

Discussed purchasing a house in the neighborhood as a rent house with my parents ...

Made it to Judo only 15 minutes late ...

Came home and ate one of the pizzas that I made Saturday ...

And am now heading happily off to dreamland!

Hope your day was great too.

The Challenges of Spousal Money Management

I woke up this morning to discover that Mr. Goat had made a midnight run for some "necessities."  What really steamed me is that he had asked me to get cat food the night before, I bought some, and he didn't see it, so he bought more.  He also bought kitty litter and dishwasher detergent from Wal-Mart, which is much more expensive than Dollar General.  As we weren't out of either, I was planning on getting them on Saturday with a $5 off $25 coupon.  So he spent about half of my remaining monthly budget, and didn't actually get anything that was urgently necessary enough to pay Wal-Mart prices.

The really frustrating thing is that he doesn't even understand why I am upset.  In his world, if it's in the bank account, it's OK to spend.  He sees that we still have money in the budget to cover it, so he thinks it's all good.  Before we married, when he used to run out of money at the end of the month, he'd just eat beans and rice and buy his smokes with money from his change jar.  He wants to buy whatever tickles his fancy until the money is gone, then tighten his belt until the next paycheck.  I want to divide the money into four reasonably equal amounts and have an even standard of living throughout the month.  Normally I have enough flex in my budget to accommodate these midnight runs (he makes them two or three times a month), but since I am doing a no-spend challenge this month, these last few days are going to be pretty tight.

Luckily, we still have plenty of stuff in the freezer, so I think that, as long as I don't have to buy gas between now and next Monday, I should still come under budget.  Considering his proclivities in the financial department, he does pretty well accommodating to my very different financial style.  And I'll be repeating this mantra to myself until I've calmed down enough to be rational about this.

Do you and your spouse/partner have different financial styles?  How to you create a blend?  Even if your blend works pretty well, do you ever want to smack him or her over the head when they make monetary choices that seem utterly bizarre to you?

My Chickens Have Come Home to Roost!

Since the farm manager quit, and my parents aren't living in the country, the chickens are back at my house.  Here you can see them giving their seal of approval to my new construction.  It's fun to have the chickens in my backyard; instead of saving food scraps in my "chicken bucket" I just toss them out the back door.

Here you can see what happens when you are absent-minded and leave the chicken feed on the ground where the chickens can get at it. For a while, she was one happy chicken!

I made it to Judo tonight, but not to the gym.  I need to go on Thursday to have 17 check-ins this month.  It might or might not happen, as I am scheduled to castrate that day.  Castrating is a pretty messy business, though, so maybe I'll go shower at the gym and call that a "check-in."

OK, I'd never do it, but I crack myself up thinking about the horror that would greet my mud and blood-splattered self if I showed up at the gym after castrating all afternoon.  I think this must be the famous "farm humor" that you're always hearing about.

Shape Up for March Weekly Update

My weight today was 160.8 lbs.  I did a bit better than last week on Sunday; I ate only 62 WW points (also within weekly point totals) and got 6 hours of sleep.  Next week I am going to get 8 hours for sure, in hopes of continuing this weight loss trend - I am down 2.4 lbs and need only 1.8 lbs over the next two weeks to make my goal!

I missed Judo on Thursday because I had a cow with a breech birth.  We saved the cow but lost the calf.  Aside from that, I am still 100% on Judo and gym, 3/8 and 12/17 respectively.  I realized that, to make 17 gym visits, I will need to go to the gym on one of my Judo days.  I think I'll go tomorrow and do something light like a stationary bicycle.

Saturday Shopping and Challenge Updates

Another week, another grocery run.  Mr. Goat made a midweek run which skewed my budget a bit.  Between his run and this one we've now spent 78% of our food budget.  I generally shop every Saturday, so I plan to shop next Saturday for the whole week, even though most of the week is in March.  So the food budget will be a bit tight, but I think do-able.

I've spent 50% of my non-household food expense for the month; a tank of gas for each car, and $4 for Turtle Bug and Tar Spray (excellent at removing both) to detail Mr. Goats car for Valentine's Day.  (His present was having his oil changed, inspection sticker updated, and a detailing by me.)

 I've also done the two oil changes, two inspection stickers, and the rear brake pads for my car that were the motivation for cutting the budget this month.

My toy budget spending remains over by 49%.  Luckily for me, Infiniti is running a special where you get $20 off every $100 you spend on maintenance, so my brake pads did not cost as much as estimated, and I did not have to dip into savings even a little to pay for it.  So far the no-spend challenge is a success - we'll see if I can make it work all the way to the end of the month.

On the Shape Up for March challenge, I have been moderately sucessful.  I missed Judo on Thursday tring to save a calf, but aside from that I am 100% in both Judo and gym.  That puts me at 3/8 for Judo and 11/17 for gym.

On a completely unrelated note, halfdozendaily has some cute napkins up for sale on her website, and she is giving a set of four away free.  Head on over there and give her some comment love to be eligible to win.