Hi ya’ll! Can you believe its March already? February seemed to fly by and all the sudden, here we are. I promised an update on my 100-day challenge for the month of February and I’m here to do just that. If you have’t already, you can read this post on the inception of my 100-day challenge. To recap, my family is trying to spend less money on stuff, so we can save money for intentional purchases (a new car down the road), experiences, and travel. Our guidelines are:
Acceptable Spending/Purchases:
- Necessities (mortgage, utilities, insurance, groceries, preschool, etc)
- Kids activities (such as our son’s soccer league)
- Eating out – with company
- Gifts
Spending to think twice about:
- Take-out coffee and Sonic happy hour
- Eating out – without company
- Household Decor Items
- The target one-spot
- Items in which we already own a suitable replacement
- Clothing and shoes
I want to start out by saying, we didn’t quite save as much as we did in January, but if you can recall, we had the fluke extra paycheck thing happen last month. February was also different because my husband and I went on a 5-night trip over Valentine’s Day weekend (and based on our spending, you would have thought we were Kardashians). But the whole point of spending less on stuff is so we can go out to a fancy dinner on vacation with 9 other friends, because we are all kid-free for the weekend, and not worry one bit about what we are ordering. Can I get an Amen?!
The trip we took last month is actually a trip Andrew and I have taken several times before. Andrew travels to our alma mater, the University of Kansas, for work twice a year, and usually I tag along. He works for a few days, then we stay through the weekend and visit with old friends. Since some of Andrew’s expense are covered by his company, it makes for an inexpensive trip to visit Lawrence, KS and see friends in Kansas City. This year was special because 4 of my girlfriends who I attended KU with also flew/drove in with their spouses. We reconnected in person (first time all 5 of us were together since 2014!), attended a Kansas basketball game at Allen Field House (thanks to a generous friend who shared his season tickets) and visited all of our old favorite hangouts.
It was truly a trip that filled our cup and poured joy into our hearts. We came home with tight abs from laughing so much and soar jaws from retelling old stories. I even printed out pictures of all the KU basketball games we’ve attended in the last 12 years, which made for a fun walk down memory lane. All that to say, we didn’t save as much money as last month but we had loads of fun.
We did, however, stick to the plan while not vacationing in February – we only ate out 5 times, *mostly* refrained from buying any stuff (I’m blaming Andrew – He bought our son a new golf shirt and himself some shorts in a moment of weakness), and we increased the amount of money we are contributing to our children’s college funds. To aid in our money saving venture in February, the kids and I visited the library, used our membership to the Thinkery (Austin’s children’s museum), and I used part of a gift card from Christmas. If you haven’t looked into all the stuff your local library offers, I encourage you to check it out. With the large network of Austin Public Libraries, there is something going on every day. My kids enjoyed yoga storytime, early literacy playgroup, bilingual storytime, and a puppet show last month, all for free.
I also made good on my intention to use what we already have around the house. I pulled two bottles of hand soap from my stash under the sink when ours ran out (even if they are gingerbread and candy apple scented – I always forget to bust them out around the holidays), found some shampoo and conditioner in my reserves, and set up a “spa” one afternoon to give myself (and the kids) a pedicure. Then, we had Murphy’s Law pay us a visit and $376 later (sigh), our truck was running again.
Progress
This month I’ve separated our spending totals into vacation and non-vacation categories to differentiate our non-necessity spending. This also helps me compare our spending to our January expenses.
February spending:
- $193.88 on Restaurants
- $67.07 on Clothing and Household items (Ya’ll, I bought some new kitchen towels, #notsorry)
- $30.83 on Gifts
- $266.12 on House Projects/Supplies (Staining our front porch deck, new mulch and some new sod, paper and cleaning products, etc)
- $16.98 on Craft Supplies
- $376.44 on Truck Repairs (While I consider this a necessity, it was out of the norm so I’m including it here)
February *vacation* spending:
- $750.21 on Eating (and drinking) out
- $283.37 on KU gear and Shopping (We bought our kids new KU shirts, Andrew found a pair of shoes he HAD to HAVE, etc)
- $361.55 on Lodging and Rental Car
All-in-all, after subtracting our expenses from our income, we saved $622.37 extra in the month of February! We are a little over half-way though the 100-day challenge and so far we have saved $4,534.12. February was packed full of fun outings and we are looking forward to where March takes us. As always, I’d love to hear how your 100-day challenges or spending fasts are going on instagram @elleandjaydesign.
