No Spend November

Hey everyone!

If you are looking for a project today, I'm sorry!

And also, if you notice any errors on this page, Blogger was acting up when I wrote this, so I"m working on corrections as it lets me.

I've had a marvelous cold since Halloween, and I don't have the energy to make a proper meal, much less craft things.

So I decided this would be a post ABOUT my plans for November -

No Spend November

Do any of these apply to you - 

Are you in over your head with debt?

Do you spend all your money on eating out?

Do you spend money to make yourself feel better?

Do you buy things instead of taking care of things you have?

Do you spend money just to "keep up" with your friends, to be "cool"?

If you find that any of this applies to you, and you want to join in, here's how it works:

For the month of November, cut your excesses.

For me, that means only buying the necessities -

Groceries
School Tuition
Health/Doctor costs
Bills
Gas

And not spending money on some of my favorite things:

No craft supplies
No new fabric
No Target sprees
No thrifting
No Amazon shopping
No movie rentals
No new clothes
No Etsy fun
No frivolous eating out - we set a once a week budget for eating out

As with any black and white rules, there are some gray areas  - in my case:

If something comes up and the boys need something for school, I will do my best to fill that need without spending money, but I will spend the money if I need to.

Make it work for you, but stick to a plan.

Why Participate?

Well, there's a list of reasons...but really, in America, November is the month we are THANKFUL for what we have. So instead of going shopping, needing more, and so forth, I am making the choice to know what I have, to be happy with it, and to learn to make do, like previous generations HAD to be.


I want to treat our belongings as part of our family, and not treat them as consumables, disposing things if they get broken.

Personally, beyond that, I tend to fill my emotional needs and free time with shopping, spending money I don't have (credit cards) on things I don't necessarily need.

I have an excess of crafting supplies - fabric, yarn, etc...and I simply don't NEED to buy more, though I may want to.  I need to work on using what I have.

We are also saving to be able to stop renting an expensive house, and hopefully buy a home next summer.  We still own our home in another state, so we may need money to settle that home up first.

I have a lot of debt - I think most people who went to college have a lot of debt, especially if they had kids before they made progress on that debt.  Some states are better about paying for education at the university level, but here in Texas, a lot of people had to make their own way, which meant lots of loans, jobs, grants, whatever you could, to get through.

Think about your personal situation - it's okay if none of this applies to you.  But if it does, and you want to join in - grab a button for your blog (if you have one) and join in.  I'll be posting updates throughout the month on my progress, failures, challenges, and so on.


I'm going to spend November saying NO to frivolous spending.

<center> <a href=” http://tupelocreative.blogspot.com“ “><img border=”0″ src=” https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd76RCvk99BDhErMeYMUuHdMQn4TR1WiIM0Bh5_n6zpkK2B4ma_CkpgllIlTC_M3iSsIcys-BKPz0iOZjR845Ckp07kW3cmYoN0ZpHKeBmLgBWB5yBchkIj7l76J0e4TE70fnN_E26QsuQ/s1600/NoNovButton.jpg “ /></a></center>

I'll come back tomorrow and hopefully give you some ways to make "No Spend November" a month where you don't feel like you are sacrificing.
And also, I'd love to hear from you about this - email me, leave a comment, anything.  I want to know what you are cutting, why, and what difficulties you may be facing. If you have a blog, and want to write a guest post for this series, email me!
Jess