Two days to go until no-spend month is over! And I can't wait, although to be honest I've been rather slack this week and broken it! I've been out twice this week and spent money. The first was a playgroup mum's dinner ($43 which included a lovely Ethiopian meal with a few wines - bargain!) and then last night was a catch up with my old housemates ($34 just on booze... when did beer get so expensive?!). Both events happen rarely and I really wanted to go to both - so I decided stuff it! Both evenings out were good for my mental health and I'm glad I went. Earlier in the week I had some girlfriends over for drinks rather than go to a bar, so at least I saved us all some money there! I'm slowly working my way through my stash of wine, as well as the food cupboards.
Surprisingly, we still have a lot of stuff in the cupboards. I'm going to spend tomorrow pulling everything out and trying to work out how we can use it next month. Hopefully this will mean I can take some stuff off the monthly shopping list, as it's looking pretty huge at the moment. We are out of nearly all baking supplies, muesli supplies (we make our own), legumes, tofu, soy and oat milks, chocolate (!), peanut butter/vegemite and many other 'essential' items.
So I suspect our grocery bill next month will be pretty substantial due to all the restocking, but hopefully won't be as huge as in the past. I'm pretty pleased that our grocery spend this month should come in at $293, which considering our average spend over the 3 months prior was $1200 a month (I know, I know - outrageous) is pretty impressive! The $293 covered fruit and veg, and buying necessities that we ran out of like toilet paper, nappies and soy milk. (I know soy milk is not really a necessity, but as I haven't been going to cafes I consider it necessary!)
Other spending this week was on a gift for a 6 year old. Earlier in the month I found something to re-gift for another party, but there was nothing left that I could think of to re-gift so ended up buying something. I checked out the local opp shop and second hand book store first, but ended up with a very reasonably priced book (the 12 story tree house) from Kmart. I'm sure the birthday boy will enjoy his copy as much as my son does.
Hopefully I can get through the next 2 days without any spending. I just baked a loaf with the last of the flour and we have enough fruit and veg to last the distance. I just need to resist the cafes tomorrow. I've been organising lots of coffee catch ups at friend's houses which has been a useful way to get me over the cafe thing, but I'm still feeling drawn to them! I'm not really sure the challenge has changed my habits in that sense.
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