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Okay, so it’s supposed to be NO SPEND MONTH but I don’t see that happening. Instead our family is going to aim for a minimum spend month. The reason being we’ve… okay, I’ve done a bit of spending lately (partly pleasure and partly medical bills) and our savings has gone back done AGAIN.  I certainly don’t spend like I used to but kids are expensive and I find it hard to say no to them. But this month it will be NO.

My plan of attack is to work out how much money I will need for the month – for things already planned – and just take out that amount in cash.  The rest of my normal weekly spending will be put straight onto our VISA.

Here’s what I know is coming up in October (on top of normal household bills). It’s actually a VERY quiet month so the challenge shouldn’t hopefully be too hard.

– Dogs to vets

– Christy’s new passport

– Appointment at Beauticians (won’t cancel as she’s a great friend)

– Halloween Party (need to supply food, paper plates, cups, etc)

– Possible lunch out with Amy next Monday

– Book group – possible lunch out

– 4 basketball games (we sometimes have dinner out and usually buy an ice-cream or popcorn – will need to look at having dinner beforehand and taking our own snacks)

– Any money paid to the girls for doing jobs.

When I add it up it totals nearly one weeks worth of cash spending – which means I’ll be able to save 3 weeks worth of cash in the month. Not to shabby indeed.

As for groceries I have two $500 vochures (from frequent flyer points) and intend to make that last until Christmas. There are 10 more grocery shops so I have on average $100 a week. This doesn’t include fruit & veg – which I buy at a different shop. On top of that we’re doing a $21 grocery challenge this week – but I already spent that yesterday . Things may be a little challenging towards the end of the week. But I think we should be right, except for milk – which I will buy if I need to. We’re all trying to eat healthy at the moment so I’m not worried what I spend on fruit, veg and other healthy essentials, as long as they are eaten. We’ve had a bit of a bad run with foods going off before being consumed. And that is a big waste of money. We have a pretty well stocked pantry so with a little thought and planning we should be able to manage. And since fruit and veg aren’t included in the $100 we might just have to eat a lot more of those.

Since I normally spend around $200 a week at the supermarket, this will give me $2,000 to be towards our bills, or savings, or our Fiji holiday :-).

So what will we do for entertainment? If the weather ever warms up we’ll go to the beach, have a picnic, visit some gardens to see Spring flowers, get together with friends.  We also have annual pass to the zoo & science center and some movie vochures we could use.

I found a great site if you’d like more information on how you could do a no spend month. Let me know if you’ve done one before or if you plan to join me.