April is going to be my first Buy Nothing Month, and I'm not looking forward to it. My roommate is going to join me, so at least I'm not going to be in it alone. It'll still be hard though. I've been trying to come up with rules, since every buy-nothing month is personal there isn't really a set of rules out there for me to follow. So far I have come up with the following rules:
1) Fixed costs are OK (rent, phone, transit, etc., the costs that don't change every month)
2) Groceries do not have a price limit, but what I spend my money on is going to be limited instead. I'm not allowed to buy junk food or pre-made meals, and I have to make a list before I go grocery shopping and stick to that as much as possible. If I actually need something like eggs and forgot to put them on the list, I'm not going to forbid myself from buying them. I'm also going to try to buy the most cost-effective item. This doesn't mean buying everything in bulk, because that makes the individual items cheaper. It means finding the best price for the quantity I need.
3) Discretionary spending is going to be limited. Here is where I have the problem. I don't want to completely cut out discretionary spending, because there are things that I have committed to for April that I will need to pay for, and can't really cancel now. So I am trying to come up with a reasonable 'free money' amount for each week and haven't decided on one yet. Anything that is not a fixed cost or groceries is going to fall into discretionary, so I am trying to figure out what a reasonable amount will be.
4) No buying clothes, shoes, or eating out for lunch. Exception #1: I'm getting together with a bunch of old friends for lunch and suggested pot luck, but got outvoted so we are going to a restaurant. That will come out of discretionary spending. Exception #2: If I am getting reimbursed for a meal by my work, then I can eat out. This happens a lot during tax season, if we stay late they pay for our dinners, to a limit. As long as I stay within that limit, it is OK, because it will be repaid.
From looking at what other people have done with buy-nothing months, a lot of them cut out discretionary spending completely. There is a very good reason that I did not. I do not want to feel resentment towards the activity. The whole reason why I'm doing it is to curb my spending, and to make myself wait until I buy something expensive. If I see something that I want, that is more than I am allowed to spend, I have to wait until the end of the month to get it. Then I find out if it is something that I do really want, or if it was just a passing fancy.
I'm also trying to get out of the habit of being too lazy to make my lunch. I'm hoping that by forcing myself to make a list I can also get in the habit of planning my meals for the week. I've done it a few times in the past, and it really is a time saver. By taking some time to plan out what to buy and what meals I am going to make when, I save myself so much time during the week. I am anticipating a lot of late nights at work in April, so this will come in extra handy. For some reason it never became a habit though. Maybe doing it for a month will fix that.
I'm also considering tracking my food for the month. I figure that if I'm making most of it at home, it will be easier to do since I know exactly what goes into everything. I'm just not looking forward to seeing what my bad habits are. I have a feeling that I don't want to change them!
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