The Spending Fast

I am sure you are still wondering what this “Come Back Season” is all about and I have to give credit to a close friend of mine who had a comeback season of her own a few years back, who has token-ed this phrase for us.  My comeback season is about meeting many of the goals I have put off “until Monday, tomorrow, next year, when…”  This is about seizing the moment and instead of waiting for the time to be right to start a new project or take on a new routine, I will dive head first.  I am sure that there will be times I get in over my head and I assure you I will be happy to admit it when I do!...and I am sure my husband will happily point it out for me!  So this is where we start.  

The spending fast! 

Most who know me have heard me say “we are hoping to buy a house next year” or “we’re getting really serious about saving so we won’t be renters forever!”  My ultimate goal for years now has been to stop paying someone else’s mortgage and have a house I can paint, resurface, or just rearrange however I want.  With that as our ultimate goal, my husband and I have committed to a spending fast that starts right now!  In order to make this a realistic endeavor we have spent the last few months processing what this will look like. You will see that I am very visual and my sweet husband humors me.

Here’s how it works:

We sat down and first gave purpose to our mission, as to not be entering into a huge commitment without a vision.  We did some brainstorming on what we wanted when this was all over.

Then we looked at what we are currently spending our money on.  Every January, when our W-2’s arrive I say the same thing; “where in the hell did this money go!” So if you are needing a motivator compare how much it cost you to live; ya know, the real necessities; with your yearly income.  We aren’t raking in the dough by any means, but I’m at a loss for where it all goes.  

 But I digress…so we really looked at what we are regularly spending money on.

We used this list to agree on what we could live without:

 

As a complete TV Junky this will likely be my toughest cut, but I keep bringing myself back the ultimate goal.  With cutting cable we decided keeping internet made sense (and how else could I bring you this blog without that?!)  I also gave in to a yearly subscription to X-Box Live which is definitely not a necessity, but without the NFL Channel, I had to give him something…for both our sanity!

Next is what we could work on decreasing monthly:

And finally, what will be the focus to pay off:

Here is where we made the rules! 

1.  No spending on non-necessities

2.  Cash only spending for groceries and gas

3.  We will each have $10 cash on us, extra for minor unexpected expenses (weekly)

 Unexpected expenses are things like if we forgot our lunch at home or something from the drug store on a non-grocery shopping day, etc.

-This also means that if I forget my lunch in the fridge at home, as I regularly do, and I have already spent my emergency cash, I will have to get creative!

4.  All left over money at the end of the month will go toward one of the “To be paid off” items, starting with the one with the highest interest rate. 

5.  No using credit cards

6.  Mandatory events will be budgeted for at least a month in advance

    We live three hours from our family and try our hardest to be a part of as many family events as we can so taking travel and family events out of the equation for an entire year defeats the purpose of my comeback season, which is to be a happier healthier person. 

 

7.  Gifts will be homemade or experiences rather than store bought.  (Heads up to my friends and family, I’m getting creative!)  And what I mean by experiences is spending time together, like taking my nephews to the park and ice cream, rather than buying them video games.  I absolutely LOVE to give gifts so this was more of conversation than you’d think.

After we had hammered out what this was going to look like, we decided that we would start on January 1^st, which gave us about a month to work out any kinks and decide on ways to make it all work.  I also didn’t want this to be one of those things we talked about and jumped into without a plan, all for it to fall flat two days in.  I took this time to tell a few of my friends what we were doing.  If you are joining in on the challenge, I highly recommend telling some of the people around you.  For me it has been helpful in two ways.  First, some of my peeps decided to join us! And two, it gave everyone a heads up for when I decline lunch plans.  I’ve gotten a lot of supportive feedback on ways to make it work…which will likely be a future post because I have some very savvy and creative friends!  

So, now we are 4 days in.  We have put in our 30 day notice on our current rental and are in search of something more affordable.  Our unnecessary furniture, that will likely not fit in the smaller place, has been posted on Craigslist to sell and we are currently soaking in as much television as we can before the end of this billing cycle.