Recap of Spending Cleanse August

Well, it's finally over! I was waiting to publish this post until that last little bit of August was over... And now it is! Hallelujah! It went really well, but I am so glad to be done with it. And in perfect time to start getting ready for the holiday season... Beginning with fall {does anyone else consider fall a holiday? No? Just me? OK, moving on then.}.

August was a great time for us to do this since we were kind of hungover from all the summer spending, and we don't really have much going on in August. Plus, after just having gone on vacation, we really needed to cut back in August since our budget is always tighter after my Hubzy takes a paid vacation (just getting regular hours and no over time, which we count on. Not a lot, but those few hours really help us out). So we cut out all extra curricular activities which meant, no going out, no eating out (including fast food), and being limited on our gas usage.


The gas was really hard for me. I challenged myself to only use one tank for the whole month. And I didn't make it. But I almost did! I used a tank and a half. So I was pretty close. I knew it would be pretty amazing for me to do that, so I wasn't super disappointed when I didn't quite make it. But everything else went great. We didn't cheat and eat out at all! I went to the grocery store, made all of our meals (which some times was a frozen dinner), and I made sure the Hubzy actually took the leftovers to work for lunch the next day, or I ate them for lunch. I was very careful to make sure that we didn't waste any of the food.

One of the really nice things that the cleanse helped me out on, was that since I am decorating the house we just moved into, it gave me some time to slow down and really think about what I wanted. I am so wishy washy, and some times I make snap decisions that I regret a week later. So this really made me sit down and think, and rethink, and rethink some more about what I wanted in the house and where. And the most important part, working on the budget of decorating the house. It's so easy to get lost in the 'oh well I just had to run to the store for some nails and glue', or 'well I had to get this lamp because it matched perfectly and I didn't want it to be sold out from underneath me.' Does anyone else do that? And the next thing you know, you're $100 + dollars over the budget. Maybe even more depending on how big the project was that you are taking on.

So in all, the month was a success. We ended up saving OVER $500 for the month. Yup. That's how much we were eating out, or making random trips here and there to the grocery store (which add up quick since you aren't usually looking for a deal and don't have a list of what you need), and just spending money at will. It made me sit back and go WOW. I did not realize it was that out of hand. So now we are rebudgeting, and will actually be sticking to a budget. More on that in a different post since this one is already pretty wordy!

Here is the break down of the last week:

Gas: $50
Grocery: $60
Treat: $7
Left: 0.24

That's right, we finished the month with 0.24 cents leftover. We Rock! I really was proud that we even had anything left over at all.

So, what do you think? Overall, was it a success? Was it worth it? Do you think you would ever try something like this, or have you already?

Hope you enjoyed my agony this month!

Linking Up Here:

Monday:

Tuesday:




 

Wednesday:

 

 




Thursday:

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Saturday:

Sunday

 

Monthly: