First off, WTF. I failed this haha. I was so strict and I still went way over my budgets. In my defense, I actually have never tracked how much I spend a month. I’ve always been a huge saver and will usually pull money whenever I need from the bank accounts I have. But like…. WOW…. the amount I spent on food in general. holy smokes. I’ve pulled together my recap and purchases for the month of January to share how I did.
In some ways I was really good about this and in other ways I completely failed. It’s honestly so hard to only buy needs. I was pretty good about not eating out and I didn’t shop once this whole month. Even though I may have failed, it was a success to see what I do spend in a month and track all of my receipts and statements. It’s something I want to continue doing!
Original budget sheet- Check out the first post here.
My No-Spend month recap:
Groceries: Total- $456.65 (Really $401.65 because $55 of it was for toiletries and paper towels and such)
- $89 Thrive Market
- $27.21 market street
- $16.24 Chipotle
- $27.33 market street
- $12 Jack in the box on way back
- $10.34 chipotle
- $44.13 Market street
- $55.84 Costco
- $8.83 sprouts
- $57.77 market street
- $77.96 market street
- $30 market street
To start, I wanna know what I was spending before I planned meals haha. Josh and I are 50/50 on our bills so I’m trying to understand how 2 people spent about $800 on food this month. WOW. We planned our list and specific meals and ONLY bought what was on the list every time we went. We went to the store about once a week. The 3 times you see fast food, that technically wasn’t allowed but the Jack in the box was on our road trip and the Chipotle was from when I was SO sick and on my death bed and we had no energy to cook. We ate everything in our fridge until it was time to go again so no food was really wasted that I can remember. I just honestly thought $300 was a good budget for food and now I know to budget about $450 a month for grocery stores including toilet paper and such.
Coffee/Drinks- Total: $32.77
- $5.33 yellow house
- Drinks- $18.86 and $8. 58
I budgeted $15 for coffee meetings and only spent $5.33 of that. I did meet up with a friend once for drinks and I spent about $29 on that so I went over budget drink wise. I turned down a couple of night outs with friends but couldn’t resist seeing my best friend for a drink!
Health: $17.32
- $17.32 prescription and vitamins
- —– Didn’t have to buy other medication this month
I budgeted $180 for health and only spent $17.32. I budgeted so much because a medication I take for my health is $130 per month. (I cry every time I buy it haha but it helps my issues so much!) Well this month I went to buy it and since my deductible hasn’t been paid yet so it was $420 for only 15 pills. I cried again lol. So I didn’t end up buying them and am trying to wait. So in a way I guess I saved here? But only because I was basically forced too.
Trip: $145.82
- $34.71 wine
- Juice: $8.31
- Taco bell: $10.80
- Uber: $30, $48, $14
Our trip WAS NOT budgeted in the beginning. I set aside money for it in December and wrote in my original post that it was going to put a pause for 2 days on our no-spend month. That’s what I spent and I had saved $200 for the trip. The rest of it was a birthday gift from Josh and we also worked with the hotel there.
Beauty: $185
- $140 hair
- $45 nails
Another thing NOT budgeted that I should’ve budgeted. I think if I do a no-spend month again, it will include beauty like hair and nails haha. My nails were awful and my extensions had to be moved up so this wasn’t something I could put off. This is how much I spend on hair/nails about every 8 weeks for my hair and every 4 weeks for my nails.
Gas: $142.27
- $31.18
- $13.84
- $25 and $36 from trip
- $36.25
Went over a little in gas. 🙁 Gahhhh…. I failed haha. Like I said, the trip caused this to raise some of my budgets up including gas or else I would’ve probably stayed under budget without the trip.
I learned SO MUCH during this month. I’m proud of myself for not buying anything unnecessary though and I didn’t shop at all or buy anything not needed. I also didn’t step foot in Target all month LOL. The biggest lesson and takeaway is really how much I spend each month on food and gas. It was a good awakening and I’m still proud of myself in some ways lol! It’s crazy to see how challenging some things were to give up like a Starbucks pick me up or a new top for an event. If you haven’t done a no-spend month, I highly recommend just to see what you spend and to not buy random stuff for a whole month!
