no-spend February | checking in

Beau is currently chilling out in my room in his mamaroo; snoozing to Mozart on Pandora on my phone because he is refined and sophisticated like that (or maybe because classical music helps him calm down and sleep and his toys that play music never stay on long enough). So yeah. I'm phone-less but I have a break to blog, so I can deal.

I want to check in with y'all about how my no-spend February is going. I got lots of great feedback and accountability partners when I posted about my goals because apparently a lot of us were on the same wavelength! We are over halfway into the month and I, for one, want to finish it out strong so I need to check in here to let you all know how I'm doing.

For starters, shame on me for planning a no-spend month during a month that holds my birthday and Valentine's day. On top of that, we are buying Mark a new car (any day now...) and I'm throwing him a party because he is FINALLY an Architect (more on that later)! Needless to say, it's been tough.

Going out to eat: We bombed this one pretty early. To be fair, Mark was never a part of the no-spend month because he does really well all the time on saving his pennies. We started off the month going to dinner with my family for my birthday and we also had a major Groupon bombing that weekend, so we ended up spending $60 that weekend on restaurants. Oops. You live, you learn, and it was my birthday! I'll give us a D in this category. I'm hoping we can resist through the rest of the month and even everything out.

Going out to eat (solo): I did really well with this in the beginning but I've slipped just a little. I do have some cash on hand as well as some gift cards, so I've fudged a bit. However, I've done well with making myself eat at home and resisting the urge to grab lunch on the go, so I'm happy with that! I'll give myself a B+ here. 

Shopping for myself: With the exception of gift cards (which in my mind were an exception in the beginning but I forgot to mention them!), I've done SO well here! I totally get an A for not buying things for myself.

Shopping for Beau: I did mention I had an exception for consignment sales at the end of the month. I cheated here, too. There was a sale I didn't know about that took place this week so I popped in and picked out a couple of things for him. Also, he is growing out of some of our favorite Gap leggings that he wears all the time. I successfully hit "X" in my browser after I was about to buy them online (on sale, duh) but once I couldn't find them at the consignment sale, I ended up picking up two pairs at Gap Factory. I figured they would be cheaper or the same price that I'll find at the end of the month and since there was no guarantee I would even find them through consignment (and he needs them!), I gave myself a pass. I can't say I'm super proud of it, though. I'll give myself a C. 

groceries: I'm living on the EDGE with groceries. We have plenty of food in our fridge/freezer/pantry and I've had fun actually cooking this month. I'm just about up to my $200 limit, though. We will eat ourselves way into March, I think, so that's good! I'll give myself an A here. 

home improvement: Another A here! I bought some paint, some painting accessories, and a few odds and ends here for just about $30, which was my limit. The paint let me check off something on my to-do list that has been haunting me for THREE years, so I'll call that a win!

gas: It has been hard to keep up with it this month, but I think I've spent $60 on gas this month. I'm driving more because we've only had one car for the last two weeks. It's going to be a close call, but I hope I can stay within my $80 limit! I'll say A- for now...

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On the bright side, I did our taxes and we are getting a nice little chunk back! Things were up in the air this year with my resignation and my Etsy profits so I wasn't sure how that would affect our taxes. Luckily it worked out well! I also made our first extra payment to the principal on our mortgage, so that felt good! 

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I'm planning to carry out a no-spend March lite for a couple of reasons:

1- of course, I don't need to spend much more than I do anyway and it's a great habit to get into.

2- we always pay with our credit cards and pay them off the next month, so we essentially are paying for last month's expenses. I won't really feel the benefit of no-spend February until March, so I want to experience that.

So that's how it is going! It has been fun to challenge myself and look at life a bit differently. I definitely feel more content staying at home and I'm getting into a good habit. Check in below in the comments if you're in the middle of a no-spend month too! We need all of the encouragement we can to make it to the end of the month!