As I have mentioned in previous posts, my husband and I are going to do our best to live more frugally this year. With this being our first full year as a single income family, we know that we just have to spend less money, plain and simple. We also know, that we can't cut certain things cold turkey. Our self control isn't that good. If we lived in a rural area where we weren't surrounded by temptations, it would be much easier for us! We also believe that living frugally does not mean living a dull, boring life. Frugal can be fun! We know that we have a better chance of sticking with the budget that my husband made if we turn it into a game. So I present to you The Frugal 'Fun Budget' Calendar!
I got the idea from our Advent Calendar this year. Some days we had pieces of candy in the squares, some days had cards with messages on them such as "ice cream sundae at Myer Dairy" or "movie night". My little babe was too young to understand it this year, so my husband and I took turns checking the square for the day to see what our surprise was. We really enjoyed it, even if it was just a Hershey Kiss, and I thought it would be a good way to try to manage our "fun expenses" each month. We won't spend any money on unnecessary things unless it is on this calendar.
My job was to make the calendar. We found some fun fabric that we won't mind looking at for 12 months a year and I sewed a layer of cotton batting between it. Then I made 28 felt squares - 4 weeks of 7 days. We figured we could go without anything for two or three days each month. Then I made two other squares. On one I sewed felt letters that spell "SAVE".
This is where we will put a card if we don't want to use it right away. For instance, if we draw a movie night card on the night that my husband works late, we will put it in the SAVE square to use later in the week. The other square says "BANK".
This is where we will keep any extra money that we don't spend. If we draw the $5 ice cream treat card, but decide to share a cone for $3, the extra $2 will go in the "BANK" square. Anything put into the "BANK" square will be spending money for our vacation (not in the budget). So it gives us incentive to be even more frugal. (There is already $2 in the "BANK" because my husband found it in the backyard when the snow melted this week. Awesome!)
At the top of the calendar I have the month banner. It is fastened on with two safety pins, so each month I will make a new one and switch it out.
My husband's part of the project was to come up with our budget and the surprises. We intentionally did not make a card for every day - we are adults after all and have to have some will power. Some of the cards are for things that are free, such as game night or trip to a free museum on campus. We do not have cable and the only TV we watch is the one DVD that we get at a time from Netflix, so two of our cards are for Redbox rentals. We can "SAVE" them for a night that we just want to veg out but don't have a Netflix. We also rent movies for free from the library.
We also have a "Cash Card" that is our spending money for the month. We can use it on whatever we want - clothes, books, food. If I want a new pair of pants that cost more than $20, I will have to save my "Cash Cards" for several months. I'm thinking that most of the money allotted for my little babe will be for fabric so I can sew her what she needs.
I know that for some people this will sound extreme. One trip to Starbucks per month - how can a person possibly survive?! $20 per month for clothing - that isn't even one new bra at Victoria's Secret?! For other people, this will sound extravagant. $30 per month spending money for a 15 month old baby- what could they possibly need?! A $25 dinner - and they call themselves frugal?! Well, this is where we are at right now. Definitely not living large by most American standards, but not as frugal as some families that have more children and couldn't even feed the whole family in a restaurant for $25.
At the begining of every month I will picture my new banner for that month and I will write a post that recaps our expenses for the previous month - did we save any for the bank, did we have a really bad month and go over the budget, did we have a fun field trip anywhere that was free, etc. Hope you'll check in to see how we're doing. It will be good for me to know someone else is keeping an eye on me - maybe I'll get the single scoop instead of the milkshake!
Joining in with livingwellspendingless.com for Thrifty Thursday.