30-Day No Buy Challenge

Tomorrow we are officially starting our 30-Day No Buy Challenge. I read about this concept in the Reader's Digest in an article by a man who came out of Target one time having almost spent $300 on a whole bunch of stuff he really didn't need (his list: "packs of underwear, bath mats, barbecue gear, Spider-Man toys, kitchen gadgets, and a plug-in thingy guaranteed to kill mosquitos." He abandoned the cart and left). This guy went home and drew up rules for his family to follow as they resolved to not buy anything for 30 days. They could only buy absolute essentials, capped their grocery budget to allow for the basics like fresh fruit and milk, paid their mortgage, utilities, and tuition for their son's preschool, and said no to everything else. Even gasoline.

For a month they had to get creative. They biked around town, went to Costco to eat free samples for fun (his fun, not mine), borrowed DVDs from the library, made french toast from stale bread, fixed their own clogged shower drain with Dawn and boiling water, and ate up what was in the cupboard. In the end, they saved over $2000 and learned some valuable lessons about life and money!

When I read this story, I was inspired. I like this idea. Even though I consider us to be a very frugal family, I still have a mindset that immediately jumps to purchasing things--both needs and merely wants. My cupboards are full, but I always think they're empty. I have little bottles of travel-size shampoo, yet I immediately buy a brand-new big bottle when my current favorite runs out. We spend $10 a month on a DVD rental subscription when they are free at the library and Redbox sends out free coupon codes every Monday. The list could go on and on, and it's because of some of these habits that several of our categories in our budget are far into the red.

So we're going to do it. No trips to Target, no Blockbuster subscription. I plan on limiting us to half of our usual food budget for those absolute essentials, but otherwise, I'm going through the cupboard to see what I can find. I just found a recipe for lentils and rice on supercook.com, so that's one meal for next week. And that box of cherry jello that has been sitting on the top shelf for eons doesn't have much longer to sit there. With Halloween coming up I usually budget $25 for costumes and candy, but we already have 3 costumes figured out, so that just leaves Jay's, which reminds me...does anyone have a good costume for an 8-year-old that we could borrow? I hope to eek out about $800 out of the month and catch up on those areas that are behind. Maybe even save a little, which isn't a bad idea these days!

So here we go! I'll post anything interesting that I learn along the way. If any of you want to join us in our experiment, it would be fun to trade ideas and figure out how much we save in the end. I'm kind of excited...it'll be kind of a game to figure out how cheap we can be, and a good lesson for our kids to not be able to get the little things they've come to expect, like donuts and Papa Murphy's on Saturdays. Maybe I won't be singing the same tune in a few weeks, but oh well. You can do anything for 30 days.

p.s. I'll be putting thrifty living websites over in the sidebar under "No Buy Challenge Links". Check 'em out!