In the final hours before my spending moratorium kicked in today, Day 1 of 31, I made three purchases.
1. I paid $.68 for a Twix bar at CVS on my way home from the library. (To me, candy should still be $.50. I won’t miss paying retail.)
2. I charged $31.65 for a Thai dinner after my dancing lesson with Hubby. Had some very tasty fresh spring rolls and curry at Chili Thai in LA.
3. I spent $12.61 filling up my gas tank at the 76 station. I’ve got a full tank to last me the month – roughly 400 miles.
Now it’s no more spending for a month!
Two brave souls stepped forward to join me on this frugal experiment.
Emily said:
I will be joining you on the Moratorium although I will have slightly fewer restrictions as I have recently moved and am not ruling out the possibility of unexpected expenses.
Tamara said:
I am going to join you on your spending moratorium for the month of July! I do have one question though, and I will post it in the comments, what do you think about buying wedding gifts? I have two weddings to attend in July and am not sure how to proceed with “counting” the spending on gifts. Am I allowed to, or not?
I wanted to make it easy on Tamara so I put her question into a poll.
[poll id=”29″]
Related:
BB considers going on a spending moratorium
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
I have started a blog to track my progress, and if you are interested, you can follow me here http://july2009frugality.blogspot.com/
Tamara
I think it would be cheap not to give a wedding gift. How about if she does give a wedding gift but limit her spending to $25? I think one of the best wedding gifts my hubbie and i received was a $30 gift card from Cheesecake Factory. We ate there the day after our wedding and it felt good because we didn’t have to spend much more out of pocket! 🙂
Count me in on the July spending moratorium! I’ll have a few exceptions as well… 1. I’ll need 2 tanks of gas to get to work. 2. The ONLY groceries I’ll be buying are fresh fruits & veggies. All our meals will come from the overstocked freezer and cabinets that desperately need emptying. 3. If I go to a Dodger game, I’ll HAVE to buy a beer, a hot dog & some peanuts. I’m really looking forward to seeing how much I can save!
Hi Nancy, your comment made me laugh. I have a hard time resisting getting a beer at the ballgame, too. Hope you can score some discounted tickets! Oh, just remembered the surprise tomorrow involves discounted Dodger tickets. Stay tuned!
Emily Post has always maintained that a wedding gift can be given up to a YEAR after the happy couple wed. The gal on a moratorium with you can cut out a picture of what she will be giving and put it in a card, then ship after your month is over. OR, she can give an experience… “A Cocktail party at my house with your closest friends to celebrate your first 6 months together”… something like that! And that puts off the buying too.
I guess it shows my age, but I still think that a candy bar ( or a Coke, in a glass bottle) from a vending machine, should cost a nickel.
Of course, in those days working class people lived on $5000 a year.
I’ll join you too. I like the blogspot idea. Not sure if I have the patience for that.
As for the wedding gift, I like the ideas already given. Be original. If you feel you need to buy something, make sure you get a good deal..
Why don’t you give a non-monetary gift in July and explain why they won’t be receiving a physical gift until August. Then you could give them your top 10 tips for saving money for newlyweds written in a Calligraphy font on nice paper that you already have. Or you could decorate the paper with either online images or stickers that you already have.
All d best to all of participants … I finished my 30 days No Eat-Out Month in June 🙂 ….. saved $74 … reduced my dining bills by 59% 🙂
We’re doing a no spend month (similar). I set our family’s budget to $750. For 6 of us (in an expensive area to boot!), this is about half our normal monthly spending. We’ll see if we can stick to it!
Good luck, BB!