No Spend July

We decided to try something new this year and take a month and try not to do any extra spending then what we absolutely had to spend. This was to show how much money we spend on a daily basis and be more aware of spending. We are also able to save a little bit of money. We are also gone for a couple weeks at camp so it makes my life a little easier. So here is what that means:

• We still have to pay rent, utilities, gas
• As for food I decided to just lower the amount we use per month because I don't normally stock pile too much--I normally buy what we need for the month.
• As for transportation we are cutting back on any extra trips. So we are hanging out around home a lot.
• As for eating out, unless it is a mystery shop where we are making money we are not eating out--this can be hard because we find we are used to stopping and getting a drink when we are on a trip or just eating out when we are tired or busy. Our eating out money normally comes from money we make from mystery shopping so it doesn't really come out of our budget.
• No miscellaneous money (used for postal, and general miscellaneous things that don't fit a category)
• No household money (this means paper goods, dish soap, things that are consumable.)
• No relationship money (we use this money for date nights--eating out, etc.) We had a nice date night doing that photo shoot at the beginning of the month and will be creative otherwise.
• No clothing money
• No gifts so if a gift comes up I will have make do with something I already have or make something. Thankfully there is only one birthday and I already had pre-ordered the present. 

This has been a rather challenging month I find. I  have noticed how many times I have wanted to spend money online, sales, etc. How many times I tell myself I need something but I have found out that I don't really need it and I just learn to make do.

Last Saturday I was working hard in my garden and found that my tomato plants were growing along the ground and desperately needed to be staked or have tomato cages. Well, knowing I couldn't spend any money I did what any resourceful person would do and went searching in the woods for the straightest sticks I could find. And guess what, they work just fine.