The Joneses are downsizing

Have you been reading all of the blogs lately that follow the adventures of people who are eating out of dumpsters, spending a dollar a day on 3 squares, budgeting $800bones for the entire year...for a family of 4 and my favorite (because it seems the most realistic) is not spending money for an entire month.

So I started thinking about it, really thinking about my spending habits and how I could save my hard earned cashola. And after thinking about it, I realized, we can do a lot without jeopardizing our life style and infact, by doing something, we are securing our life style in a shaky and unpredictable economy.

As I alluded above, our family is going to try not spending money for the entire month of April. This is going to be tricky as I have decided to host an Easter Egg Hunt at my house the weekend after Easter. My concession on this is that I will be able to purchase the Easter accroutrements for 75% off. Last year, we hosted a group of 6 or 7 kids plus parents and it only cost me 40 bucks. This year, I have budgeted $100 dollars. My rule is I am not allowed to spend more than $100 on the Easter party.

Aside from Easter, here are the rules we have to abide by for one full month:
We will pay all of our normal monthly bills such as rent(you can breathe Masa), utilities, car payment as the project is to try and increase the quality of our life by spending less, not decrease the quality of our life by not paying our debtors. The only other thing I can think of is gasoline for the car. This is a tough one because we obviously need to get to work and we do not live close enough to our jobs to walk, jog or ride a bike. So the concession is $75 a month for the both of us on gas. So that is a total of $175 aside from our normal fixed bills that we have to pay.

No grocery shopping, we have to use all of the crap in the pantry, the fridge and freezer and the extra fridge and freezer in the garage. When we run out of stuff, we have to make do with something else. I will become a very creative chef.

No buying sundries and other household items. Again, we have to use everything in the pantries and cabinets. When we run out of our usual soaps, lotions and shampoos, we will use all of the lotions, shampoos, beauty products, soaps, etc that I have stashed away in containers that I never open.

No credit cards. No cash, no nothing.

Is it scary? Hell yes. With the few concessions list above, we will not spend a dime. Am I scared that we may run out of toilet paper? yes. but when I was a kid, I remember using magazines and newpapers. Toilet paper was not always a part of my life style. What if I run out of period pads? Yes, I will make do. coffee? make do, alcohol? it will be a dry and long month (we will be rationing and I suspect, I will be forced to hide my booze stash)

Wish us luck. We are going to need it. If it doesn't make us closer, it will at least make us not as poorer.