Frugal Friday...

It's time for Frugal Friday again. Okay, so it's Saturday but better late than never, right?

I wanted to share my frugal February idea. This is the 3rd year in a row that we have had a 'no spend' February. I got the idea somewhere on line but don't remember where. The basic premise is that we spend no money in February. Yes, we still buy groceries, although I do tweak the budget down a bit, and any other truly necessary things (like medicine if one of us is sick). But we don't buy anything else - no clothes (we can all make it through the month for sure), no sporting goods, no toys, no gifts, no going out to eat, no home decor (this is sometimes painful for me), no hair cuts. Not much of anything, really. My husband & I still get our 'allowance' each week. I even put back a truly hilarious card (that would be perfect for a friend who just got out of the hospital) when I was at CVS yesterday (waiting for a prescription). It was only $1.99 but it was not a necessity (I sent my friend a nice note just a day before so she knows we're thinking of her.)

Why do I do this? From September - January it is gift giving central around here: my birthday, our anniversary, hubby's birthday, mother-in-law's birthday, my mom's birthday. Add Christmas and LM's birthday in Jan and we are coming off a spending frenzy. February seemed a good time to do this since there's not much going on for us. Kind of like a spending detox. We do have Valentine's day to deal with but I plan ahead for that and we are not big Valentine's day spenders.

My husband was a little leery about this the first year. Frankly, he thought I was losing it. This year he seems on board and even tells his friends about it.

A no spend month makes me realize how much we spend on things that we don't truly need. The money we save usually goes into savings and it's neat to see that balance grow so much between Feb 1 & Mar 1. Some people take the savings and make a donation to a favorite charity. A great idea. Others put it towards a vacation. The fun thing is that there IS extra money and we get to decide what to do with it.

Does anyone else out there do anything like this? I'd love to hear about it....