Monthly Challenge - March

This month's challenge is going to revolve around money - not spending it.  I thought about this after we got our taxes done a few weekends ago.  Our accountant asked us how much we were putting away each paycheck and unfortunately we couldn't really respond with a specific amount of money.  Since Troy's paycheck varies, it all depends on how much "extra" he made that month.  We have money set aside in a savings account, in case we had to pay more in taxes for last year, but we were hoping to do some things with that money this summer if we didn't have to pay much/any in taxes.

This got me to thinking about our spending habits.  Too frequently, do we just run out to get a few things at the store and end up with more than we intended.  A "quick" run to Target for diapers, ends up turning into a much larger total than just diapers.  On the weekends, all it takes is a question of "whats for lunch?" and one of us mentions Jimmy Johns and off we go to get it.  It's quite easy just picking up something for dinner on Tuesday's when I have class and go right from work to class until 10pm.  We definitely aren't pinching pennies by any means, but I think about how much more we could save, or what other meaningful things we could spend our money on than food.

So, my (our) challenge this month is to not spend money on anything we don't need: no eating out, no random snacks/drinks at gas stations or drive thru's, no shopping for new clothes, etc.  Now granted I realize that we do need to eat, but we don't need to eat out when we just went grocery shopping and have plenty of food in the house (or perhaps we need to do a better job shopping so we aren't tempted to go out as often).  It isn't too difficult to just pack myself a little something extra for dinner on the nights I have class.  A few weeks ago I stocked up on diapers at Target during a sale they had, so I have no need to go to Target this month at all - which will help on spending any extra money there.  I talked this challenge over with Troy because me not eating out means no eating out for him too (for the most part), and he was up for the challenge too.  And sure, I'd love some new spring clothes, but its not quite warm enough yet for a major overhaul of winter clothes, so that shopping can wait.  The only "extras" I'm allowing are for the boy's birthday/party at the end of the month and a haircut for myself - it's been just over 5 months since I've gotten a cut - I think I'm due for one!  So let's see if we can minimize all this extra spending and do a better job with saving!