No-Spend February Recap

In case you missed it, we decided, after a busy and expensive holiday season, to do a no-spend month! Kyle and I agreed to say ‘no’ to spending unnecessarily on things like clothing, accessories, household decor, takeout, restaurant meals and general stuff.

So, now that it’s March, I thought I would share how we did!!

My initial thoughts are that we likely cut down on a lot of frivolous expenses. We didn’t go out to eat or order takeout at all. I didn’t just go wander around HomeGoods and bring home a candle or a rug. I didn’t buy Butters any toys or treats (I did stock up on treats at the end of January though) and the biggest thing… I didn’t buy any clothes. I have a problem, ya’ll. I love clothes. Especially comfortable ones. But, for the last six - eight months I’ve been buying all of my clothes thrifted from ThredUp (click to get $10 off your first order!!) or on clearance at Old Navy. However, not spending money on clothes for a month was a big win for me. I definitely want to keep that up.

Looking at our grocery bills I was sort of surprised at how much we still spent but I also felt like I was at the store at least once a week instead of once every two weeks. Without going out to eat, Kyle and I both had a lot of “there’s nothing in the house we want to eat” after the first week so instead of craving pizza and ordering pizza… we would crave pizza and then go wander around the grocery store trying to find things we’d want to cook and make at home. In some ways we probably spent more than if we had just ordered the pizza. I did also buy a bit of freezer stuff for my own lunches that won’t get consumed until March or even April.

Scroll down to see the recap of what we DID spend this month and on what!

The Recap

$343.99 for groceries, household care (like toilet paper, laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent) and trip snacks for my wedding weekend in Pittsburgh

$86.76 in personal care (like cosmetics for a span of bad breakouts *unavoidable expense if I wanted to look presentable for my wedding weekend, stupidly expensive razor blades that I ran out of, new face wash, acne spot treatment and lotion

$22.74 at Lowes for marble threshold for our unfinished kitchen floors

$21.99 at the Home Depot on the gorgeous fiddle leaf fig above and some potting soil (this is my one big fail but it was such a steal!!!! and I can’t resist a fiddle on sale.)

$45.57 from Chewy.com for Butters dog food (Nutro Ultra)

$41.99 on new rack cards to send to venues which were a business expense

$12.00 on my February wedding couple’s client thank you gift also a business expense

$3.66 with USPS for shipping a client gift again, a business expense

I’m glad the month is over and we can freely order pizza and Chinese food again but I also love the idea of periodically doing challenges like this. While we will probably have a hard time making it practical for us during my busiest months of the year when we thrive on pre-prepared meals, it’s really important for us to force a daily reminder to be grateful for what we already have.