Frugal February Challenge

This month, Tim and I are doing a Frugal February challenge and sharing our experience with all of you!

While we stick to our budget every month, I like to do this challenge a couple of times a year to save a big chunk of money in a short time period.

Here are the rules:

1. No spending outside of fixed expenses, groceries or gas.

2. If you sell something, you can use that money to spend on whatever you want.

3. At the end of the month, put the amount you saved by not spending and anything extra you’ve earned into savings!

Our discretionary “fun” budget is $500 a month so by not spending this and then selling things we don’t need, we have the opportunity to save more than $500 in just 30 days. That’s on top of all of the saving we normally do on a monthly basis.

That’s enough motivation for me to stick to the challenge!

Here are some tips I’ve learned over the years of doing this:

1. Look at the entire month of February and take note of holidays, birthdays or special events. We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day as a couple but I like to get a few small things for the girls. Buy any gifts ahead of time so you’re not scrambling and spending money in February.

2. Get your partner/family on board! It will be way more fun and it’s cute to see everyone get creative on how they are going to not spend for a whole month.

3. Keep a “wait list.” Anytime you feel that urge to add something to your Amazon cart or just buy something that you want, put it in your Notes app on your phone or your digital planner. On March 1, you can go back and see if you still want those items or maybe the novelty has worn off. This is an awesome habit to have outside of the challenge too! Put things on a wish list for at least 30 days before you make the purchase - you’d be amazed at how many things you don’t really want after 30 days.

So far, we’re on a great no-spending streak! We initially planned on using some of our “sold” income to splurge on pizza delivery but decided to keep our streak going and made burgers and fries instead. While I know we “can” spend this extra income, I really want to see how long we can go without spending a dime!

So, what do you think? Could you do a Frugal February challenge sometime? :)