No Spend Month: 10 Day Update

Hey Everyone!

Hope you're all having a fabulous Saturday! I know I am! I had a lot of stuff to get done today, but I am completely on track (for once) and am crushing these errands leaving me some time to update you on my no spend month!

So I went into this month with no plan for my no spend challenge. I figured I would just keep tracking how many days I spend money and when I don't spend money to see where I'm at. Well, it's the 10th today, and I've only had 2 no spend days so far. Yikes! I know, I'm not doing the greatest but it's a start.

Already learning from this month, I know that April has to be a VERY strict month. I want to be saving my sinking funds for my trip and to pay off my insurance. I have to save $2100 for my insurance (which I'm at $750 so far) and I have a goal of $800 for my trip (this includes the airfare and food while we're there). So before the end of this month, I will make a somewhat plan for what days I would like to spend on. Groceries will be done on the same day that I get gas (to save myself time and hopefully an extra spend day) and I will do all of my bills on the first and fifteenth. It's going to be a huge learning curve, but having watched many people in the Debt Free Community absolutely CRUSH their debt and get their savings back on track, I know I can do it!

I can honestly say that I have cut back on quite a few things! I haven't spent any money on coffee this month yet! I've been making it at home, and I was given some free Starbucks this week so that was my nice little treat. I've also been noticing now that I've been having protein shakes for breakfast I haven't really needed coffee as much, so I'm going to take it down to 1-2 days this week to see how that goes. Also, drinking water in the morning helps A LOT with not needing coffee! I've only bought non grocery food once. So that's another huge thing I'm trying to work on. I'm very lazy when it comes to meal prep and cooking, so that is something I have to improve which I know will help improve my budgeting in the long run.

This is a learning process. I am not expecting to be perfect. What I am expecting is to make big progress. Having set challenges each month of earning extra income has so far proved very profitable. I've been dog sitting, babysitting, selling some extra stuff and continuing with my freelance work. I've been crushing the goals I've set each month and for that I'm proud. So always remember, even though it may take some time, stick with it! Do yourself a favour and set small goals first that will help lead to your bigger goals. Here's some of my small goals this year that I'm working on leading up to something big:

- Creating Sinking Funds: I have what's called sinking funds for transportation, vacation/travel and wedding. These are jars that I add to each pay cheque. I know people ask "why would you put that cash in jars when it can earn interest in a bank?" To be honest, I have been looking into better savings account options so that I can combine these three sinking funds into something that will earn me money as well. The timing right now just isn't right to do research so for now I'm just taking it out to make sure I can save it and not spend it.

Goal for Transportation: I don't have a year end goal for this one, as I'm constantly filling and using this one so the goal is to just keep putting $100 a paycheque in it for now as well as some of my freelance cash.

Goal for Vacation/Travel: right now it's $800 for our trip in May. We are also planning to go to Florida in October so for that trip I'm planning to budget $2500 (hopefully we'll get some more wicked flight / accommodation deals) . For this one I'm putting my babysitting money in here.

Goal for Wedding: since we actually aren't planning a wedding yet, I'm slowly contributing to this one. I just know that I want to pay off our wedding before it happens, so I am planning to cash fund our entire wedding (with help of course). But for now, my year end goal for this jar is $4000. Essentially I'm working on the 52 week money challenge times three. Right now, my house sitting money is the only thing I'm contributing to this. I think anything I sell for the next few months will be split between this and my transportation fund.

What are some of your goals? Do you need somewhere to start? Have some questions? I'd love to chat! Feel free to comment on here or follow me on Instagram at millennnialsmission and send me a DM! Have a fantastic weekend!