30 Days of Nothing

Over at Owlhaven, I've been reading for the last week or so about 30 Days of Nothing. I really like the concept of it and kept thinking I should try it.

Then I thought of a bunch of excuses: She's almost half way through, it's a little late for me to join in. And I'm new to blogging and not sure this is where I should start. And we have plans in the next 30 days that will make this a challenge.

But, um, I guess it's supposed to be a challenge, right?

And I really identify with her posts about entitlement and the relative luxury that we live in here in the Western world. I have photos of D's foster grandparent's home: their dirt floor, their kitchen area, their sleeping mats. I struggle with the disparity of this reality. Do I really need the things I buy? Or do I just want them?

So here are my rules:

If I don't have to go out, I will stay home.

If I have to go out, I will walk if at all possible. If I must drive, I'll take the shortest route and batch trips together.

I'll limit shopping to groceries and necessities.

And I'm going to try to cut our grocery budget. We spend about $80 per week to feed our family of five. So that's about $320 over 30 days. Now, I went shopping Thursday for two weeks worth of groceries (not including perishables). And I preordered a box of food through Angelfood for $30. So I'm going to try to keep our food/supply spending to $250 over the next 30 days.

I picked these goals because I spend less when I'm home and it has the added benefit of allowing me more time at home to work on some projects here.

One of our financial challenges is fuel. We live in a small town and my husband has a big commute. If I want to visit family or shop somewhere other than the two grocery shops in town, I have to drive at least 25 minutes to get there. I'm hoping we'll spend less in this area over then next 30 days.

Our food budget is an area that I've been working on over the last few months. I've been using coupons, shopping sales when possible, spending a bigger percentage of our budget at Aldi, and checking our refrigerator often so I don't let food spoil.

I've never tried Angelfood before but I ordered a box last week. So I'm going to work hard to build a menu around the items in their September box even though there are things there that I would never usually buy. Um, bratwurst?

I'm not sure that $250 is the magic number, but I think it's manageable. Today I spend $2 on the Sunday paper. I count that as part of our grocery budget because of the coupons. So, we have $248 to last until October 14.

I'm off now with the three little mudgies to make some thank you and birthday cards. Our first foray into 30 Days of Nothing. No store purchased greeting cards.