When we reported our expenses from October, we admitted that we had gone a bit overboard on both food and gas spending. And we resolved to do better this month. In that vein, we decided to try something we had never tried before - a spending cleanse.
What’s A Spending Cleanse?
These guys were to see no action all week…
It’s basically just a fixed period of time (we were aiming for Monday – Friday) when we would spend no money at all. No quick stops at the grocery store, gas station, etc. Mr PoP would have to bring his lunch instead of paying for it in the work cafeteria.
I had heard people talk about “no spend” days before, and I always thought they were mostly tricking yourself by adjusting the dates on bookkeeping entries. ”What’s the point of putting off buying milk tonight if I’m going to have to run out and buy it tomorrow morning anyhow?”
But we had admitted defeat as part of our recovery from a bad budget month, so we were willing to give it a shot – with the caveat that we would track expenses carefully to see if we actually did save money or if was just accounting tricks.
We vowed to give it our all, even if Mr. PoP did balk at my suggestion that he leave his credit cards at home for the week. “I think you’re taking this too seriously,” was his response to my suggestion. (She was taking this too seriously! Just wait till she tells you about the 6lbs of blackbeans…- Mr. PoP)
How It Went
Monday: Did not bode well for the rest of the week…
- Mr. PoP had to attend a networking luncheon for work – $15. Unfortunate, but a business expense that we knew about in advance.
- Remember my complaints about my finger from last weekend? Well, it hurt so much because it was infected. Copay on my doctor’s visit was $10, but on the plus side it was reimbursable, and I got free antibiotics at Publix!
Tuesday: Email exchange midday Tuesday between Mr and Mrs PoP…
Mr – “Craigslist alert – my lawn mower is finally for sale. $50! I’ve been waiting 6 months for this and it had to come during no spend week. You planned this, didn’t you?”
Mrs – “haha… want to make an exception?”
Mr – “Nope! Tried to get [a coworker] to car pool with me to stretch the gas budget-no go!”
Mrs – “haha, way to stick with it, baby!”
Wednesday: Getting past hump day was an achievement!
- I wanted some some candied ginger on my way home, but didn’t stop.
- Mr. PoP and I fist-bumped to celebrate the success.
- Going strong with Mr. PoP bringing 2 small meals to eat at work during the day, and I’ve been bringing homemade veggie chili into my office to heat up in my mini-crockpot.
- However, Mr. PoP’s coworkers decided on Thursday afternoon to have “Thanksgiving” the next day. Mr. PoP needs to bring something in and we don’t have the time (or the ingredients). We decide he’ll just have to pick something up at Boston Market on Friday morning. *sigh*
Friday: The last day! Can we make it?
- Mr. PoP bought a coffee at his office for $1 in the morning to slap himself awake for a presentation. On the upside, the Thanksgiving luncheon ended up being less of a bust than he thought. Someone else organized the whole package and everyone just had to chip in $5.
- On his way home, Mr. PoP stopped for a haircut – $20. Oddly, neither of us thought of this as spending until hours afterward…
Total spending during “no spending” periods: $51.
Consider It A Success?
I’m going to give our first efforts at a spending cleanse a solid B grade. Over the weekend we stocked up on food and I cooked a LOT so that we’d have tons of food. The planning was good… even if we did get tripped up a couple of times.
In terms of time, it was actually a pretty big time investment to do all the shopping and cooking on the weekend. Shopping took an hour and a half or so since I had to go to both Whole Foods and Publix, and cooking was probably a good 6+ hours spread out across Saturday and Sunday.
In terms of money, we spent about the same on groceries that we would have if we had been spending throughout the week (~$100), but I definitely overbought as there is still tons of food. I don’t know why I bought so much… Wait, yes I do – I was oddly paranoid of running out of food during the week (dear lord, I bought 6lbs of dried beans…). There’s enough food already made in the fridge for lunches up to Thanksgiving just from the rest of the leftovers in the fridge. The key in this case I think is going to be not buying more until all the perishables are used up. (As of writing, perishables still include a head of lettuce, a tomato, button mushrooms, a small sack of finger potatoes, 2 sweet potatoes, half a can of olives, 2 apples, gallon of milk, yogurt, cheese, an onion… Yes, I admit it – I definitely overbought!)
Even though we spent about the same on groceries, we didn’t spend anything at Mr. PoP’s work cafeteria. We usually set $100/month as the budget for his work cafeteria each month, but it had been creeping up and last month was $125. So by not spending this week, that’s basically $25-$30 that he probably would have spent in a normal week.
Health-wise, we think it was pretty successful. Mr. PoP and I both want to get back into the habit of paying more attention to the proportions of protein, carbs, fats, etc that we eat – and by preparing meals ahead of time, this gives us a big leg up on doing that. We’re going to try and keep bringing lunches more often and be more consistent.
Bottom Line: Measurable spending savings of $25-$30… with the greater potential for more to be realized depending how much of the leftovers we eat.
Noticed Oddities
We did notice a few weird things in this experiment.
Mr. PoP actually had to explain to a coworker what carpooling is. She was unimpressed and did not want to give it a go. That’s Florida! There are many things that I love about this place, but the addiction to cars isn’t one of them.
Mr PoP has a lot more daily peer pressure to spend than I do. I think part of it is the culture of the sales floor – managers like having sales people that like spending all their money. It makes them “hungry”.
Neither of us thought of Mr PoP’s haircut as spending. Weird, right? It wasn’t until we were going over the exact numbers in mint that I saw the haircut charge and got hit with a “duh!” moment. We had talked about the haircut; I complimented him on the haircut… yet neither of us thought of it as money out.
The prep was more work for me than the execution, where I think the opposite was true for Mr. PoP. Once all the cooking was done, not spending for the week was pretty painless for me. But Mr. PoP had to watch his gas tank more, and deal with pesky coworkers that want to make him spend all of his money on lunches!
Will We Do It Again?
Probably. As the haircut shows, there’s definitely an element of mindless spending that we don’t think about – and I think this little experiment has helped to show us how to bring more mindfulness back to our spending. Plus, we’re pretty convinced that by planning out our meals like this, that our health is going to improve, too.
Tentatively we’re planning on trying to do something similar to this going forward – bringing lunches to work and making an effort not to stop during the week for “little stuff”. If we are able to stick with it through the end of December (6 weeks from now), we’ll have a good comparison of what has happened with our food spending when we compare October, November, December trends. Plus, if we’re able to stick with it through the holiday craziness, there’s a good probability that we’ll have developed the habits to keep it up.
Have you ever done a spending cleanse? If so, what was your experience like? Did you also buy way too much food as though the world was going to end?
Also – would anyone be interested in reading/sharing favorite frugal recipes? Our ideal is a recipe that works out to about $1-$2 per entree serving, is pretty healthy, and not hard to cook. (A domestic goddess, I am not!).
Yes, we have done a spending freeze before…usually at the end of the month when our grocery budget has been spent. Then we try to eat up stuff in the freezer until payday comes (and our new grocery budget).
Holly@ClubThrifty recently posted..So You Want to Win the “Lawsuit Lottery”?
That would be a great way to make sure you use up all the frozen stuff in a reasonable amount of time!
We’ve never labeled it as such but we have done this before. It’s amazing all the little things people don’t think about like haircuts. I’d say you’re bang on in saying it was successful in making you more mindful with is probably worth a whole lot more than cash spent/saved.
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The haircut thing was a ‘wow’ moment for both of us since the running joke is that I never notice when he gets a haircut, but this time I made a big deal of it when I noticed. =).
That’s funny about the haircut. Have you ever thought about buying a $15 hair trimmer and cutting Mr. POP’s hair at home? Anyway, great job in giving this a try. I haven’t formally ever done a no spend week, but I think it may be fun just to try once. As you read, and commented, over at my blog, I’m on the envelope system this month for the first time. It feels almost like a no spend month, because I spent all the money before the month began and the inside of my Mint.com account is almost so inactive that I feel like they may shut my account down. Haha. Anyway, great job on this and hopefully next time you’ll be able to keep your spending down to $0!
Kraig @ Young, Cheap Living recently posted..I’m Paying Cash for November and am Loving It
There is no way I would trust myself to cut Mr PoP’s hair unless he wanted just a buzz – and that’s not how he wants to look for work these days. So haircuts 4 times a year it is. It balances out a bit that I’ve gotten into the habit of only getting a haircut once every couple of years, though =)
Haaaa! Maybe I could go back to shaving it…
This is sort of what we do now, unintentionally. I work in a crappy part of town so I always bring my lunch and almost never go out during lunch or after work. Usually on weekday evenings we eat dinner at home and enjoy Netflix entertainment or go to the gym. Mr. Barn Cat isn’t much of a shopper, but he works downtown and has way more pressure to go out and eat with coworkers or just grab something quick in the morning. The weekends can kill us if we’re not careful because that’s when we do all of our shopping, including the ‘just for fun’ type. We also love going to estate sales and hate to pass up an awesome deal.
Doing this mindfully is an interesting idea though, perhaps we’ll have to try it out for ourselves.
As for haircuts, it definitely feels like an expense for me! I got a haircut on Friday and I definitely felt the pain in my wallet. Since guys usually get haircuts more often, and for less money, I could see it being seen more as a necessity than a luxury.
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I agree – women’s haircuts are way more expensive… So I try to avoid them for as long as possible, but when they cut 14″ off the last time, it was hard not to relish the spa treatment of getting my hair shampooed before the cut.
I’ve never done an actual spending cleanse, but if I am running a bit high for the month I try to cut way back to the bare essentials and it works pretty well to even out the budget. I think you did pretty well with it !
Gillian @ Money After Graduation recently posted..Unfrugal confessions of a normal spender in the PF blogosphere
Thanks, that’s been our tactic so far, but we still managed to go over… When ya need has to get to work, ya need gas, right?
Loving the honesty. I did a no-spend challenge and failed…miserably. I blame the dog. Congrats on getting through it
L Bee and the Money Tree recently posted..100th Post Celebration-The Best of L Bee and the Money Tree
Haha, what did the dog do? Eat all your prepared meals?
I have never done a spending cleanse and probably would struggle for the next month or so because of the Holidays. But, if you’re looking for a good recipe, you could use all those beans and make red beans and rice. You can substitute brown rice for white rice, which is more healthy. The expensive part would be the sausage, which usually runs $3-4. But, you can easily get two dinners and two lunches and you’re looking at maybe $10 bucks to make.
I’ll look into a vegetarian version – but you make that dish sound easier to cook than I thought it was. Thanks!
You had to explain what a carpool was?!!! Are there no carpool lanes where you live?
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Granted, his coworker isn’t the brightest. But nope, there are no carpool lanes where we live and people think nothing of driving separately to events that are 15-30 miles away…
Lol, 6lbs of dried beans? I think overall you did great on a “no-spending period” despite the 51$ spent. Just having some success is better than none in my book. Not to mention you could have run it up to several hundred bucks pretty quick if you had no goal whatsoever.
Veronica @ Pelican on Money recently posted..Making Money From Home – Is It Possible?
Yep, 6lbs of dried beans. I needed two different types of beans, and there were 1,3, or 5 lb bags. The 1′s looked so small, so I went with the 3′s… but beans expand A LOT when you cook them! (I had forgotten that part!) They’ll get used. As part of the health aspect, I want to be using more dried beans than canned. =)
Interesting. I’m not really keen myself on the no spend days, but if it works for you then do it!
Mo’ Money Mo’ Houses recently posted..I’m Gonna Be a Mentor!
It’s definitely been interesting, and we’re not going to beat ourselves up about it if we fail some days. But I really like that it seems to be making us think before we spend even if just for a moment.
Good job! I find it weird that the coworker was not willing to carpool though. At the moment, I spend money once a week, on the weekly supermarket and building materials trip. It is great not to have to think about money for the rest of the time. I can share a vegetarian pizza recipe for $2 per person if you want!
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It probably helps that you’ve got lots of work cut out for you at your place. That will keep you busy without leaving much time to run around and shop!
I’ve thought of doing a spending freeze. It’s a good way to look at hour money is spent and if it can be put to better use. A big mindless spending for us are Slurpee’s or ice cream, usually in the summer when we run errands. Plus it make you stop and think about how you’re eating.
Keep up those fist bump celebrations!
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Yes – we tend to buy sweets one at a time to protect our waistlines. A box of cookies in the house will get eaten very quickly… so a lot of the mindless spending that we’re cutting out is sweets like the candied ginger I wanted or Mr. PoP’s favorites are these huge icing stuffed cookies at our grocery store. Not the healthiest dinner.
I’ve got the same problem as Mr. PoP. We rarely buy ice cream or those icing stuffed cookies. They just don’t last long enough in the house to justify buying them. Although they seem to last on my waistline.
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My husband and I recently did a no spend weekend. It was a long weekend so other than fuel on Friday Morning we did not spend from Friday until Tuesday Morning! I find having no spend weekends are a good goal for us as we are at work during the week and other than fuel usually don’t buy much. On the other hand when the weekend hits, we have lots of spare time, and that’s when we tend to go to stores. We didn’t go out but managed to get stuff done around the house! We also watched alot of Netflix!!
I can definitely see weekends as being more challenging since that’s when I typically run most of my errands for the week. We did manage to have a no-spend date night on Saturday, though! We used up some free mini golf vouchers and then hung out people watching at the mall for a while.
Maybe some time we’ll have to try a no-spend weekend like you just to test it out, though!
i love this idea, mrs. pop, and we have done something similar.. spending temptations pop up day to day, and they are hard to say no to.. but you have to keep your eyes on the prize, and we have done a fairly good job of it so far this year… we are not really in a spending cleanse per se.. but more of a spending thaw
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haha, I like the imagery of a spending thaw. =)
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Yes we do what we call a no-shop week every week when we grocery shop. We allow $190 in our grocery budget for 2 with 3 weeks of shopping and one no spend week sometimes 2. It helps us to stay away from temptations and spending more money than we should be. You know the old saying, “just going in for butter” and coming out with a cart full, well it happens, alot to some people. Good for you, hope your cleanse is something you continue to do. Mr.CBB Shared on FB!
Canadianbudgetbinder recently posted..The Grocery Game Challenge Nov 19-25-Black Friday and 35 Days Til Christmas
That’s pretty neat – what do you do about perishables? Milk and bananas are two of our “must haves” in the house, and they never seem to stay in optimal condition for much more than a week or so. Thanks for sharing Mr CBB!
I try to do spending freezes every week, Monday – Friday and I am usually successful. I fill up my car on Sunday and I can run until the next Sunday. I always bring my lunch to work (boring sometimes, but it saves a lot of money) and I don’t stray from my grocery budget that I spend on sundays. Spending freeze’s helped me pay down all of my credit cards.
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When I worked 80+ hours/week and was living by myself, I did pretty much the same thing as you… but idle hands, you know!
That’s why I think this is a good thing for us – to bring mindfulness back to our spending actions.
Good luck with all the credit cards!
Since I have been playing the grocery game with Mr. CBB, I have to have grocery spending freezes. I only have $3.41 for the rest of the month, so thank goodness for our freezer meals. I have a few good recipes that are super easy and cheap that I can email you if you want. I am not that great of a cook, so if I can do it anyone can.
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Kim, I am always on the lookout for easy recipes. Would love to trade/share if you’re willing. Our email is plantingourpennies AT gmail. =)
Couple of my favorite frugal ways to save grocery money.
1) buy in season produce at a farmer’s market. Get to know the same vendor and save a lot of money. Then figure out ways to use that fresh produce. Healthy. Creative. Inexpensive. Often I simply steam, stir fry or roast the vegetables.
2) Cook a new bean in my crockpot every week or every other week. Mix with vegies, protein of your choice ( I am mainly vegetarian but my husband isn’t so each can put in their choice). Put brown rice or quinoa in the rice cooker, hit menu and start and there is a simple variety of dinners.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Karen
The only annoying thing about here is that most of the farmer’s markets are during the week when I work! There’s one on Saturday mornings, but I have to rush there from my yoga class if I want to get anything before they start to close up.
How do you cook beans in a crockpot? I’ve only ever done them on the stove.
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[...] Our First Every Spending Cleanse- Planting Our Pennies [...]
[...] Planting Our Pennies: Our First Ever Spending Cleanse [...]
Interesting! I don’t usually do ‘no spend days’ but this is pretty cool. One week a month, maybe?
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I think even once a month could help. =)
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[...] Our First Ever Spending Cleanse on Planting Our Pennies [...]
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