Originally I set out on this post to tell you how much more money you can save if you are organized.  If your home is organized you can find that birthday card you bought instead of buying another, you can use the foods in your freezer, fridge and pantry before they go bad.  But as I sat down and started I thought I am not one to preach on this subject.  Currently my pantry looks like 2 bombs exploded in there (not one but two LOL), my filing cabinet hasn’t been cleaned out in ages, my freezers are so full I just cram things in there (and am out of space).

So I decided I’d take a different approach and challenge myself and you if you are up for it to tighten the belt.  I see people doing no spend challenges all the time but I know that I can’t not spend any money each week, we eat too much bread and fresh veggies for that and as soon as I broke the challenge that would be it.  So instead I’m tightening the belt.  For the rest of this month we are tightening the belt around here and here’s how:

• Shopping less!!  If I can get it free you can bet I’m still going to buy it however if the price is over a dollar it will be very carefully analyzed before I buy it unless it’s on my list.  The list
• Bread I will look for the best deal but it’s needed almost daily here
• Milk Again it’s needed so will be bought
• Fresh Veggies  I will only buy at the Farmer’s Market where I can get the best prices
• Peanut Butter is a staple in this house and I know we are getting low so it’ll be purchased when needed unless it’s on sale first
• Newspapers I still will need my coupons to continue to get things for pennies or free
• Organizing so I can make sure we use everything we purchase without waste
• Driving as little as possible with gas up up up staying home will save us alot of money
• Reducing electricity use as much as possible even if I have to chase Shawn around and shut things off

I will also be posting daily (as allowed) to let you know the little things we are doing to tighten the belt and to report on my purchases, doing that will help hold me accountable.  In addition to not spending I’m going to be doing all things possible to make some money.  There are plenty of ways out there to make a little extra money (not getting rich here so don’t think that) but I will go over them in a separate post another day. 

So do you need to tighten the belt, stop the financial bleeding, or just save some money for something? I’d love for you to join me feel free to blog on this or just comment on these posts and let us know how you are doing each day too!!  I’m starting today and will be back this evening or tomorrow morning (I need to figure out when it will best fit into my schedule) and let you know how I’m doing.

or in my case a not spending much challenge.  I’m joining Sara over at Learning the Frugal Life on a spending challenge this month.  I’m going to post my goals below and update on Fridays on how I’m doing.  I’ll still be doing my how I saved posts on Wednesdays so it’ll be Saving Wednesday and Spending (or lack of) Fridays.  Remember if you decide to challenge yourself to this you need to set realistic goals for yourself otherwise one slip up can led you to feel defeated.

1. Keep almost all spending below $60 a week.
2. Keep gas spending down as low as possible.  My gas bills are going to go up since I have to take Shawn to daycare everyday but I’m going to try and run all my errands when I’m out.
3. We will not be eating out.  You spend lots of extra money eating out, the food is not better than you can make at home and you consume a lot more calories when out then at home.
4. I’ll continue shopping for the free/super cheaps at CVS, Walgreens, Publix, Target, and a few things at Walmart.  But we’ll only be buying those items unless we absolutely need it.
5. I will have a few extra expenses this month since we have 4 birthdays in October but I’ll be working on keeping those costs as low as possible.
6. I have some birthday money left to spend since I’ve been told no paying bills with it so any of that shopping will not be included.

Please feel free to join us on this adventure.  We can all use to save a little extra money and without spending means we can put more into savings.  To add to our savings Dave is keeping his eyes out for any available overtime and I’m getting some stuff ready to sell on ebay and starting to prepare for a yard sale late this month or early October.