January Spending Fast

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What is a “spending fast”? Well, it’s exactly what it sounds like - you don’t spend any money for a predetermined amount of time. It really gives you a chance to catch your breath, figure out where your money is going, and get things in order before you pick things up and continue on as normal.

A new big mortgage, busy Christmas season, large medical bill, and a road trip had our pocket book panting a bit and we realized we needed to just take a break - a month-long break - from spending money. We didn’t go shopping beforehand to prepare us; we just dove in.

Of course, we haven’t been legalistic about this. We have our utilities, mortgage, etc. that have to be paid, plus an amazing deal on a second hand couch that we really needed and an unexpected breakfast with brothers. But the goal really wasn’t to see how long we could go without spending a dime. It was just to take a break, like a vacation, where you are charged up and prepared to go at it again.

The most challenging thing has been the food. We started with a pretty full pantry, fridge, and freezer, but our “normal” supplies are dwindling. Before, when thinking about what I should cook for dinner, my eyes would skip the containers of dry beans and rice (because they just take too long to cook!), and go to my usuals (things like milk, cheese, tortillas, pasta, canned tomatoes, frozen meatballs, and frozen veggies). I’ve had to learn to be more creative with my cooking and much more consistent with meal planning. If meal planning doesn’t happen, neither do the meals!

I think this is just a really good exercise to practice every now and then, especially after a particularly expensive month. And it will force you to actually use up random extra things in your pantry (like cans from Thanksgiving and powdered milk from who-knows-where) and random leftovers and different cutsof meat in your freezer that you probably would overlook and end up throwing out in a few years.

If, or I should say when, we do this again, I don’t know if we’d go completely cold turkey. We could just cut out all extra spending (clothes, eating out, second hand treasures, etc.). Then try just using what we have in the pantry/freezer and only buy fresh vegetables, milk, bread (e.g. the essentials!), but only spend a small, predetermined amount. This will still force me to meal plan creatively and use what we already have.

When this is all over, I know it will be tempting to go on a major shopping spree, stocking up on everything. But that will just defeat the purpose of what we just did. So when this month is over, we plan to spend only our usual grocery budget (well, it will be our new grocery budget, as we’re needing to cut down on how much we spend on food. But that’s for another post. :-) And if we have to go without a few things on that first shopping trip, so what? We’ll have gotten used to going without stuff for a month! :-P (I’m so grateful for my amazing, money-wise husband who will help keep me in check!)

A few ways I’ve had to be more creative with food so far:

-Replace milk with water in cornbread (It tasted just as good to me! This was before I discovered the milk powder in the pantry.)

-Instant milk! Kris remembered that it had been hiding in the depths of the pantry. I’ve only used it once so far, but was super pleased with the results!

-Regular bread for hot dog buns

-Canned applesauce and random forgotten bags of fruit in the freezer (made into shakes) for our daily fruit serving(s)

-Chicken alfredo pizza. Kris was really wanting pizza, but the only cheese we had was parmesan. So he cooked up some frozen chicken thighs (which turned out amazing!) and I made alfredo sauce (milk powder! ;-), plus a few other ingredients, and we had pizza! So incredibly yummy!

-Lots and lots of beans (when I plan ahead of time, I’m able to soak the beans overnight, and of course start them early the next day so I’m not in a pinch come dinnertime.)

-Half cups of coffee (for me) in the morning. I like to put a hot chocolate packet into mine, so this way I’m only using half a packet a day.

-I made a couple batches of burritos, but didn’t have enough cheese to put together all the mixings. So I just froze the leftovers for next month when we will have cheese. :-) I’ve done the same with a cake in the freezer that was leftover from last month - I didn’t have enough powdered sugar to make frosting for the whole thing. So I just made what I could, then froze the extra pieces for another time.

As you can see, nothing has been super drastic, but it’s just made me think ahead. We’re still only halfway through the month and I’m sure as we get closer to February, things will need to be stretched a liiitle bit more. But it will be exciting and challenging! :-)