No Spend Month - Week 2

Productive/Creative Tasks from This Week

• Returned some things to Walmart
• Used some free taco coupons at Del Taco 
• Returned some things to Ross
• Returned the gifts I bought my kids for Valentine's Day and exchanged them for less expensive valentines, then used a $2.68 gift card and the leftover $5 to buy everyone lunch at Cafe Rio (If you are paying attention, that's 2 trips to Cafe Rio in 2 weeks. I guess I have a problem) (we shared a tostada (I asked for extra lettuce) and the kids got free nino quesadillas).
• Bartered for some chalk paint and painted a desk
• Found a gallon of $5 mistinted paint in my basement that I bought last year and forgot about and used it to paint my bathroom vanity and my new storage room
• Bought some cabinet hardware fr the bathroom vanity (6 drawer pulls for $10 that were regularly $5.97 each) (remember, we are remodeling the bottom levels of our house, so we are still making purchases for this)

Neglected Items I Used

• A few cans of stewed tomatoes 
• An old bag of frozen corn
• Some taco seasoning left over from a family vacation 
• Canned peaches
• Tuna fish
• Ramen

Temptations

My biggest temptation is going out to eat. I think this will always be the thing that pops in my mind the most and that I have to remind myself to not do. Part of the reason it's so tempting is that there are small windows of time in each day where I need to burn about half an hour in between car pool stops, and that is the finest time to pop into a food establishment and grab a bite to eat. Also, I had a very heavy school load this week, so ordering a pizza would have been a real life-saver, but I stuck it out and fed my family at home. I am a big fan of eating food that was prepared elsewhere in order to prevent my kitchen from getting messier.

"Oops!" Moments
 
The kids didn't have school on Friday, so I took them to the Church History Museum (FREE!) We left as everyone was starting to get cranky and hungry for lunch. I knew I should have packed some food, but I didn't because it was so hard getting everyone out the door. I made up my mind that I was going to  cave in and stop somewhere for lunch. After all, a day off school warrants a Sam's Club hot dog combo or something, right? But as I was driving, I started thinking about how my kids know I'm doing No Spend Month, and I can't let them see me give up on a goal. I had a long internal battle in the 25 minutes it took to drive home, but eventually I made the final decision to come home and make Ramen.

How I Spent My $10 Cushion

(I rolled over $7 from last week)

• $1 candy bar
• $1.60 Redbox (my free code didn't work, which was a total bummer, and there were too many people in line behind me, so I was rushed) (Jurassic World, if you're wondering)
• $13 hair cut
• $4 milk (someone actually picked up the milk for me and didn't make me pay, but I'm deducting it from my balance anyway)

So, it seems I've already dipped into next week's $10 by about $2.50

Things I Learned About Myself

• I consider taco soup to be the ultimate "armpit of the pantry" food
• I waste a lot of gas while going places to spend money (not going to the store is saving me a lot of gas)
• When I'm not spending money, I lose track of when pay day is. It's kind of nice to not be anticipating a pay check. Pay day came and went, and I didn't even know. When I checked the balance of our account and was pleasantly surprised.