My Take on Day One of Living Well & Spending Zero

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So, a couple of weeks ago in my post called, Are You Ready For a Fun Challenge, I encouraged you to join me and about 60,000 other people to accept the challenge that Ruth Soukup over at LivingWellSpendingLess.com is offering for the month of October. It’s called 31 Days of Living Well &Spending Zero, and I couldn’t be more excited.

I have done a couple of her other challenges, and I can say that anytime you do something as a community, it is so much easier to succeed than if you were to do it on your own. There is just something about knowing you are not going it alone, especially if it is something that is a bit of a struggle, that just makes it easier to conquer.

If you have read even a few things here at The Intentional Mom, you can probably tell that I am kind of a frugal gal, but what I really love is passing on to others the lessons that I have learned along the way. Some of the lessons have been more obvious than others, and some of them have been more difficult than others, but I have been so blessed to have learned to live on a shoestring and feel it is my way of giving back when I share this knowledge with others.

This is what has made this challenge so exciting to me in the first place. I know from firsthand experience what a game changer really learning to be intentional in the money we do and don’t spend can be in the lives of people. For some, maybe even some of you, this may be the first time that you really step back to examine much of anything as it pertains to spending, which is also an exciting concept to me.

I am still learning new things every day when it comes to frugal matters. In just the past couple of months I have learned how to save what will be nearly $2,000 this year on my family’s prescriptions, and it all came about when I was simply just genuinely talking to my local pharmacist about life. You can read more about that whole deal in How Being Frugal Starts With Being Gracious.

For this reason, I know that I will learn several new things along the way while taking this challenge with Ruth and 60,000 others this month. Even an old dog like me can learn new tricks sometimes 😉

Because today is October 1st, we received our first email and assignments today, which is what I wanted to reflect on.

A couple of things really stood out to me within the email, and I wanted to share them with you. First, Ruth reminds us that this challenge will be tough, and I know from taking spending freezes in the past that she is spot on. It will be tough, especially if this is new for you. Even if you are not a big spender, there is just a mind shift that occurs, and learning to think in a new vein can be a bit foreign at first. I like how she tells us to anticipate that.

I also loved how she informed us that we have got to be all in. We have got to be fully committed to this in order to make it work. I would add that we need to be confident in our ability to make it through. Even if you are unsure, you must approach this with an attitude of, “I can do this,” rather than an attitude that says, “I’m going to try to do this.” Do you see how these are drastically different? In the second one you’ve left yourself with an out. Being all in is not leaving yourself an out. With that in mind, you do need to get your mind in the right place. You WILL succeed – even if you’re faking it till you make it at first.

The first step in today’s assignment was to sign a contract that states that you are willingly accepting this challenge and that you intend to keep it.

This is for every member of your family to sign, ideally. I would show you a copy of mine, but that would mean that I didn’t discover the printer to be out of ink today when I went to print mine off. As Murphy’s Law would dictate, my printer, which I seldom use, is fresh out of ink at the moment. The ink is on it’s way, however, and I am all in even though I am not able to sign my contract right now.

The second step for today was to list our general rules. We were to list what grocery items we will still be buying. For me this is:

• milk
• bread
• eggs
• fresh produce
• oyster crackers for the baby
• ketchup, which we are out of
• cocoa powder, which we are out of. How would I make a homemade chocolate latte without cocoa powder?!

Next, we were to list the things that we are committed to spending money on. Our commitments or non negotiables. For me these include:

• mortgage
• utilities
• car and home owners insurance which is due this month
• my driver’s license expires since my birthday is next week
• phone bill
• printer ink 🙂
• gas for the cars

Lastly, we were to list the things we will NOT be spending money on. I took this to mean the things that I mindlessly spend money on. Not that they are necessarily bad things, just things that I buy without giving it much thought. For me these are:

• the things I stockpile on for sale items at the grocery store
• items from the drugstore, even if they are free I am paying tax on them
• the occasional cheap pizza
• books for me (this is my one treat maybe once a month for me)

Can I just tell you how excited I am to have the month off from all the time it takes to stockpile? I have enough food to eat in my pantry, 2 refrigerators, and 4 freezers (7 kids, remember) to carry us through the month. I will be using things up, getting creative, and most importantly, saving myself a TON of time! Not to mention the trips to the drugstores! Getting these things for pennies on the dollar has been my way of life for more than five years so it will be weird, but I am ready for a break – and Ruth has given it to me! Thanks, Ruth!!!

I am so excited for tomorrow to see what we will be doing. My plan is just to share a slight recap here and any new things I learn as I go. If you have not signed up or want to read about day one, just go here and read The Ground Rules.

I look forward to sharing the recap and take away points with you tomorrow, too!