The zero spend challenge is over. We survived! Although, if you think you saw me at Kroger's on Wednesday, you are correct. We needed a few things, because we had used so much of our resources that we had nothing to make a complete meal with. I also took advantage of the fact that Kroger's had a pretty decent sale Wednesday to Saturday. I am happy that I only spent about $50.00. Our overall spending for the month of October fell just over $3000.00 I was hoping it would be less, but we had a tax bill in there and an additional car insurance that came rather unexpectedly. We also took a nice weekend trip and had some educational expenses. We spent $196.56 on groceries. I am very pleased with this as we typically spend between $600 to $800 per month. ( I include everything we buy at the store in this category, like personal care items, medicines like tylenol and cleaning products like laundry detergent as well as paper products).
1) October is a terrible month for a zero spend challenge.
(this is because we do a lot with my daughters band and school stuff as well as taxes are due) My husband and I have decided to do two spending less challenges per year. One in January and the second in June.
2) Having kids is expensive. ( I already knew this, a huge percentage of our spending is related to our kids needs.)
3) Our number 1 necessity/expense was our utilities. (I have already cut them as far as possible, but I think I am going to call the phone company to see why I am paying so much for a home phone we never use and for SLow internet, which is called "zoomtown" but it is anything but!)
4) We spent $40 just to park our car in the month of October. (Yes $40! I had to look at it twice, to be sure there wasn't an error. We paid $15 to park our car at the Saint Louis Zoo, we paid another $10 to park at the Bands of America event. And, I paid $9 to park at the University of Cincinnati while Madisyn was at her lesson for over an hour. ( That is outrageous, by the way), and I parked for the Alzheimer's walk in Newport, to save a few bucks, but it was $3. And, we paid a few meters for other stuff, like at the post office in Covington.) I think I will buy a parking lot and just charge people to park in it, what a market!
5) It is possible, to save a large chunk of money, buy using up what you already have. We saved close to $800.00 this month as we spent a lot less on eating out and a ton less on groceries. We spent only $139.76 on dining out. (This a great for us, it's usually around $400 per month)
6) It is possible to stay at home, and have guests as well as visit others in their homes without spending one cent. ( this is also fun too!)
7) Cars are expensive. In addition to paying to park, we spend a lot of money on gas for our cars. We spent $ 252.00 for the month of October to fill the tank alone. And gas is cheap right now. I know in the past when gas was at its most expensive, I would spend almost $70 to fill my tank and that was about once every 5 days. Car repairs and maintenance are not cheap either. Luckily, we no longer have any car payments, but our cars are also older. (Time to start putting something away for a new one.)
8) My dad is the inventor of reduce, reuse and recycle. ( I already new this, but I have been spending more time with him lately and he is so smart! If he can't find a way to recycle, reuse or compost it, he will save it until he can. He is looking into having some electric work done at his house and because he already has a lot of the supplies, it is going to save him some cash.)
9) My family members are good sports! They really got on board with the program. Yeah, I mean I heard some complaints and sure, they think I am crazy, but they really did their best to follow along.
( and we all know I'm crazy!)
10) My friends and family are awesome! ( I also already knew this, but I am so grateful for the support and all the encouragement during this challenge. I really have a blessed life!)
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