Day 1 of No Spend November

Welcome to the first day of No Spend November! Today is the first day of watching our spending. If you want to join in the fun, just comment and I will figure out how to do the linky thingy.

First, many people are asking, "How are you doing No Spend November when Christmas is next month?" Well the answer is that we are doing a homemade Christmas. A lot of our family has been laid off and there is just not a lot of money. Therefore we are taking this year to teach our boys about the true meaning of Christmas. This is going to be really hard for me. November is one my favorite spending months. Black Friday is one of my favorite shopping days of the years. It's going to be a struggle for me.

Here are my rules. You can make up your own guidelines, if you choose to take part. I am not here to dictate how you are led to take part. The main reason for this is to cut out all the little things that we tend to spend money on and stick to budget. I know for us, we are poor by all the McDonald's sweet teas that are only a $1...

So, I will have:
$115 for groceries
$25 for gasoline
$50 for impromptu expenses (example below)
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Today we spent $28.14 going out to eat.

This is how we consider eating out an expense that we can incur this month:

Sometimes we walk into church and we see friends we haven't gotten together with in a while. We get to talking and see that they (as well as I) just need a time of fellowship together. Andy and I pray and if we feel led. We first ask ourselves what we had planned for dinner after church and how our home looks. Today we were having tacos that were leftover and our house was a disaster. We then pray for God to direct us to go out to eat or if we should just do it another time. Today was one of those times that I felt God telling me that money was not important compared to that friend who I felt needed my attention. Therefore, the $28.14 came out of the impromptu expenses.

I really having a controlling, anal personality. It was really hard for me to come up with this category, but I really try to be available to the Lord's prompting when it comes to my money, plans and goals.

Another thing that I am going to be doing with this No Spend November is answering any questions you might have. Therefore, if you have any questions, please email me or comment and every Saturday, I am going to sit down and answer them.

Please, please tell your friends to come and visit during this months adventure (and comment. I will need support!). I would love it if you blogged about it or anything else you might see fit. I would really like all the accountability I can get!

Lastly, I know that a lot of you only get online to check your posts once a day, I am prepared to do No Spend November (which will be at least two posts a day) along with all of the other blog carnivals I take part in. I will try to tie them together so there are less posts, but there will be quite a few posts coming from One Blessed Mama of Boys. I hope that that is okay with you!

Thank you so much for taking this journey with me and I'm glad you're here!