No-Spend January (*gulp*)

So, my small group has a challenge they have issued to us for the first month of the new year.  We are declaring this month to be a "No Spend Month" (NSM).

Honestly?  I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this.  I'm dreading it and I'm looking forward to it all at the same time.  Looking forward to it because I know my finances are something I desperately need to work on.  And yet I'm dreading it because I know my finances are something I desperately need work on.  :)

Ain't that the way it goes?

We'll be taking a look at the book "Managing God's Money" by Randy Alcorn (author of "The Treasure Principle") as a small group as well, to help give us some guidance and teach us how to be better stewards of the money/resources we are given.

In researching a little bit from a blog I was given (http://smallnotebook.org/2010/07/01/the-no-spend-month/) it seems like the gist of it was that they would not have a total "No-spend" month, but they would severely limit the amount of discretionary spending that takes place (gas, groceries, clothing, household expenses, eating out/entertainment, etc...).  The household bills (electricity, mortgage payment/rent, phone, etc...) were not part of the budget that they had (although it turns out they did significantly reduce their phone bill after they completed their no-spend month).

I'm trying to figure out what a no-spend month looks like for me.  Because my life situation is a bit different, there are some things that I know I am going to adapt.

So, for now, here is what I have defined as my absolute necessities (in other words, bills that must be paid):

• Tithe
• Compassion Child sponsorship
• Rent
• Cell phone
• Car payment
• Credit card
• Medical bills (I know of at least one that will be due this month)

Areas that are necessary, but my spending will be closely monitored and/or cut back:

• Groceries
• Gas (this depends largely on how much I drive, so I will be monitoring this pretty closely)

Some things that are not necessary, but I do not wish to stop at this time:

• Netflix membership (I actually use this pretty consistently and am on one of the cheapest plans available)
• Gym membership (I plan on making a more conscious effort to use this one)

I'm still a bit up in the air as to how to approach the rest of my spending.  While I think it is a bit harsh and too strict to say that I won't spend anything outside of the items listed above, I am not sure what to settle on for a budget for the discretionary spending.

Perhaps it should be something like $100.00 ($50 from each pay check).  I can withdraw the money as cash and once it's gone, it's gone.

Some things I am trying to take into account for my discretionary spending:

• There are a couple of birthdays this month and one very early on in February (one for a friend's child...I already have the gift for that. The other birthday in January is for a dear friend.  My oldest nephew's birthday falls between the end of January and my first paycheck in February, so some planning will need to be done)
• A family expo that I wanted to attend (I would have to pay admission)
• I'm *hoping* that our church's off-site coffee shop/ministry will open up this month and would love to be able to go and take part in celebrating that by buying a cup of tea or hot chocolate or something small like that.
• There will (most likely) be a couple of nights where I will not have enough time between getting off from work and my next activity to come home, fix something to eat, and then go again.  Those nights I plan on either bringing a meal/snack from home or (if the budget allows) grabbing something fast (and cheap) to eat

Some things I thought would be considered cheating:

• Manipulating it so that someone else would pay for me (like reminding them that I'm not supposed to spend the money and then guilt-tripping them into paying for whatever we were going to do)
• Using gift cards and/or store credit (while I know it's money that does not come directly out of my pocket, it is still money and would defeat the purpose of this exercise)

We had talked briefly about what we would do with the money we end up saving.  Someone suggested giving it all to charity.  Quite honestly (and as selfish as this sounds), I plan on keeping the money.  Whatever extra I have at the end of the month will be transferred over to my savings account (outside of what would be paid by automatic debit between January 31st and February 7th, my first pay date for the month of February).  This is because I have absolutely nothing in my savings account at this time.  And I would like to go ahead and try to employ some of the methods I learned from taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University (like building up a cushion of $1,000 in my savings account as quickly as possible).

In the mean time, I will be tracking my spending diligently in Quicken (making sure to update it at least once a week).  We'll see how this works!