Cheap Challenge 2013

For the month of August, we will be doing our best to save money by commiting to the No Spending Challenge, or, as we will call it, the Cheap Challenge. I have had this and many other money saving tips, challenges, and budget plans pinned to my Frugalista board on Pinterest for quite some time and only a few of them have actually happened in the Turner household.

At this time in our lives we are in somewhat of a strange place financially. I have a steady income, but Jake does not due to being a full-time dental student. My salary is a reasonable salary for a family of three, but it is definitely tight some months and absolutely nothing is going into savings. We have a buffer built-in from the additional money we take out in student loans each year to make sure we are covered in the event of any unforeseen expenses, but payments on this and all of Jake's loan money for tuition, tools and miscellaneous fees will start requiring payment sometime around November of 2014. With all of this in mind there is no time like the present to figure out where we can scale back so we are in a good place financially to pay the mountain of dental school student loans off ASAP and to start building our retirement fund.

Thus, our savings kickstarter: Cheap Challenge 2013.

Challenge Details:

For the next 31 days our family of 3 only has $250 to spend on all food, gas, clothing,

entertainment, household items, and doggie needs.

This budget restriction does not apply to the house payment, utilities, or cost of daycare since each of those easily exceeds $250/month all on its own.

I am really interested to see how this goes. We are going to definitely need to eat at home each night, pack lunches, find free events for entertainment, and try to drive as little as possible. I will definitely need to stay away from online shopping and resist the urge to buy clothes for Declan and myself when I make trips to Target (perhaps I should just avoid Target for a month).

Wish us luck and feel free to check-in to help keep us accountable! :)

Check back for weekly updates!

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4

Lessons Learned