No Spend Month - Week 4

First I have to come clean. I broke last Saturday night shortly after I published my Week 3 post. Scotty and Nicky went to a hockey game, and I couldn't handle being home with the girls for ONE. MORE. SECOND. So first we ordered pizza (Papa John's had 50% off online orders since the Jazz won the night before) (that's our NBA team, by the way). Then we went to Menchie's for frozen yogurt. Then we went to Target because my mom gave each of my kids $5 for Valentine's Day. The girls ended up buying some Valentines for 90% off (Frozen stickers and Minnie Mouse tattoos galore!) and I bought each of them a pair of boots for 70% off. Good deals all around! But still against the No Spend Month code.

(I knew I'd cave eventually because that's just what I do).

After that little splurge, I got back on track for five days. But on Thursday of last week, I had oral surgery, and there's something about having your gums sliced open and stitched back together that makes you need to buy lunch for your family at Chick-Fil-A (even though you can't eat it). And then when your sister-in-law offers to let your kids sleep over at her house on Friday night, you have no choice but to go out for Chinese food. And when you make dinner on Saturday for your mother-in-law who just had surgery and you're out of everything but tomato sauce, corn, and black beans, you're probably going to need to go to the store. And if you're that off track when the new week starts, you might as well go grocery shopping on February 29.

Before I broke, here's how things went this week:


Productive/Creative Tasks 

• Made buns (which is in the "making bread" family, but is nowhere near as much work as "making bread")
• Found some discounted laminate flooring for our storage room (68 sq ft for $40.12)
• Painted the vanity in my other bathroom and framed the mirror 

 Meals We Ate

• Slow Cooker Roasted Garlic Beef Sandwiches (minus the roasted garlic - I just threw some garlic in the crock pot) (this was the roast I bartered for in week 1)
• Sweet and Sour Chicken
• Breakfast croissants
• Breakfast burritos (which gave me heartburn) (I don't like having this in common with Larry the Cable Guy)

Remember that time I watched Larry the Cable Guy and Justin Timberlake have a conversation?

Temptations

I was at Ross this week, and they had some capris and knee-length shorts, and the rule when you're a Mormon is... If you see knee-length shorts, all No Spend Month rules are on hold whilst you try them on. If they fit, you MUST buy them because they will not be there ever again.

They didn't fit.

But the $4.99 skirt did.

And I walked away.

DO YOU HEAR ME? I walked away!

But Britt, why were you at Ross during No Spend Month anyway?

I was looking for a shower curtain for the bathroom.  


How I Spent My $10 Cushion

(I had a $2.58 rollover from last week)

• $6.61 (2 gallons of milk, a loaf of bread, and a loaf of French bread)
• $3.47 (another gallon of milk and some bananas)

and then it all went out the window and I stopped keeping track, but I was waaay over my $10.

After this awesome financial exercise, I wish I could say that I'm forever changed and that I'll now be able to practice perfect discipline in my spending, but I'm pretty sure the past few days are an indication of my real motives.

Still, this was a really good experience, and I'm glad we did it. We will probably make it a February tradition just to torture our children.