No Spend School Year

No Spend School Year:

As I move forward into this new school year, I am making an effort to limit shopping to only a few necessary areas of life. 

So here we go:

-Groceries: the grocery store will be one of the places I can go and shop. Buying food from the store, fruit from the market, that stuff is obvious.  

-Maintenance and Upkeep: The next thing that I think is important to have an as an allowable purchase are things that I need for the maintenance and upkeep of my home and vehicles. This allowance is an important part of protecting my investment. I know that I'm going to be needing some pieces of new siding for the house that need to be replaced, I will buy the boards. I will need to prime and paint them, I will buy the paint etc. Those are just some examples.  

I love doing projects at the house and making my space more beautiful, but I will need to do as much as possible free of charge. For this reason, I am creating a free projects list for my home. As I look around the house, garage,  and yard, I can see tons of different items and areas that need to be updated, changed, cleaned, decluttered, organized, etc.  The list will be long, but it needs to be a list that I can check boxes on. I like to see progress, completion, plans come to fruition. So for me, this is the best way. 

-Gifts for others:

This is an important part of who I am. I love to give gifts to or share experiences with my friends and family. I am coming up with some creative ideas for Christmas and birthdays, etc. to make meaningful gifts, but also affordable.

-Broken or worn out items: Now when talking about these types of items, I am referring to ones that need to be replaced. Before I just go buy something, I want to make sure that I've used everything that I have so that I am not just spending frivolously. These are "needs" not "wants." For example, if one of my pairs of flip-flops breaks, I have more, so I will not go by another. If a lightbulb goes out, I will buy a new one. And so on...

There are some items that I have an abundance of and therefore will not be spending money on:

Clothes 

Shoes

Purses

Bags of any kind- reusable shopping, backpack, etc

Doodads

Makeup

Perfume 

Body lotions

Soaps

Nail polish 

So when does all the start, do you ask? Tomorrow. July 27, 2020. And it will go until the last day of school in May of 2021. With the extra money, I will pay down debt, and save a percentage of my earnings. My goal is to one day be debt-free. With student loans and credit cards, that is a lofty goal. But, I will succeed!  I am looking forward to sharing this exciting new journey with you.