No-Spending Challenge Results #5

No-Spending Challenge Results #5

Back when I introduced the No-Spending Challenge #5 I said I wanted to send my husband with some cash on his guy trip to the Nebraska football game. I had that thought in my head the entire 4 weeks of the challenge. That thought also guided the way I spent money after the challenge. This time it would have been WAY to easy to end up with $0. We used the cash envelop through the summer for groceries as well as trips. But in the end we managed to end up with $100 in cash that he was able to take on his Labor Day weekend trip for food and incidentals. He came home with $7.

So how much did I spend during this no-spending challenge? For week one I spent a total of $78.79. $10 was in you-pick blueberries which went into the freezer and is not a normal purchase, and $12.41 was a cheat stock-up on toiletries since I had a couple of rare $2 off coupons. This ended up being my only cheat for the four weeks. It wasn’t a bad first week, but it could have been better.  Still well under my average of $112 I typically spend per week as seen in my Real Grocery Numbers Post (what I spend in a typical week).

I spent $41.80 in my second week, almost half of what I spent week 1. Much improved! I also crock-potted a whole turkey opening up some serious room in the freezer…and who knows how old it was. I don’t remember. It was so nice to have the leftovers for turkey quesadillas, salad, etc…

So for week 3 of our no-spending challenge, we spent a grand total of $14.54 on groceries. Two things highly impacted our spending in this week. We were gone three nights for a church leaders retreat/anniversary trip (all breakfasts were provided and some other meals as well, so we didn’t spend much this way either-although eating out isn’t part of our grocery budget-but you know us. We try to be good stewards of the money the Lord has given us wherever we are and whatever we are doing).

And then we have been making really good use of local seasonal produce. Actually at the bed and breakfast we stayed at for our anniversary the owners blessed us with cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, and more. We’ve been eating a zillion different things with zucchini. Then we’ve been saucing the apples like crazy and making fruit leather in the oven since I don’t have a dehydrator. And we’ve been enjoying the plums from our fruit trees too. Makes a huge difference on that grocery budget!

Then in that 4th week I had a heyday in the kitchen making a few loaves of lemon zucchini bread, zucchini bake, a couple of batches of chocolate chip coconut zucchini oatmeal breakfast cookies, more fruit leather, crock-pot apple butter and MORE!! So my 4th week total was $24.97.

Here are the real numbers and where I spent.