Every weekend I list several blog posts from the week that I thought were really good. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
The Family Finances is pleased to be participating in a $100 giveaway raffle for our readers! The contest runs through January 31st, and you can enter via any of the methods shown in the rafflecopter widget at the bottom of this post.
Are you familiar with the term “No Spending Challenge”? Until I started reading a lot of personal finance blogs, I know I had never heard of this. The concept is pretty simple: you challenge yourself not to spend money on anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. The idea is you cut back really hard for a certain time period, be it one day, a weekend, a week, or even a month. Then you’ll have all this money leftover at the end of that time period to either save or use towards paying down debt.
Personally, I’ve never participated in such a “challenge”. We are a single income household with a 2-year-old boy. The reality is that most weeks/months are the equivalent of a “No Spend Challenge” for us. My wife hasn’t been to the mall in over a year, and I rarely ever buy anything either. No, we’re not living in poverty or anything. All our needs are met along with a lot of our wants. But neither my wife nor I really spend hardly anything on things that aren’t quite necessary, and it’s a little difficult for me to see how people have such a hard time getting their expenses under control that they would need a no spending challenge to get things straightened out.
The point is that if you create a budget and get a handle on the money you have coming in and where it’s all going, you won’t have to resort to a “no spending challenge” to save a few bucks.
My Money Resolution Challenge at Florida Credit Union
When Canceling Cable or Satellite, Get it in Writing at Your Life For Less
Job Hopping & Generational Differences in Opinions About Careers at When LIfe Gives You Lemons
Jumpstart Your Personal Finances at Tackling Our Debt
Retirement Planning and 401k Matches at See Debt Run
The Downsides to Common Frugal Tips at One Smart Dollar
Doing a Better Job Tracking My Passive Income Streams and Retirement Savings at My Money Design
How Federal Tax Rates Work – Not What You May Think at Money Life and More
Learning to Live on One Income so You Can Enjoy an Early Retirement at Modest Money
So You Want to Be a Freelance Writer? at Making Sense of Cents
Are You in Charge of Your Financial Future? at Frugal Rules
Winning Means Being Unafraid to Lose at Club Thrifty
How I Support My Family On One Income at Canadian Budget Binder
3 comments
Canadianbudgetbinder
January 19, 2013 at 11:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That’s one nice reading list you have here. Thanks for the mention mate, much appreciated as always. Have a great weekend. Mr.CBB
Sean @ One Smart Dollar
January 20, 2013 at 11:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks a lot for the mention this week.
Sicorra@TacklingOurDebt
January 20, 2013 at 1:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks very much for the include!
While I do not actually do a no spending challenge I do try to spend less each month on groceries. Like you, we haven’t shopped for much outside of our regular monthly expenses in a long time. In December we spent way too much on groceries so this month we have cut out our small entertainment allowance and reduced our spending on groceries significantly to compensate.