Coming Tuesday – No-Spend Month, Opus 2

It’s been a long time since we’ve done a spending diet – what we like to call a “No-Spend Month”.

Starting next Tuesday, Nov. 1, we’ll be doing just that.

You can read previous posts in the No-Spend Month category to see how it went last time.

But first, a few updates of what has changed in our life:

• We’re the proud owners of a car! But this comes with a much larger monthly transportation bill. That said, we felt we needed it since…
• We’re expecting our third child in December – my “infant” is now a strapping 18 month old, and my toddler is now a 3 year old “big girl”
• I’m not on maternity leave – which means I’ll have less time to make a lot of things work. This will likely cost us a bit more.

Behind No-Spend Month

I got the idea from Rachel at Small Notebook. This month is a chance to do without the conspicuous consumerism and frittering away of our surplus so that we see more room to save. Our budget for the month will be NIS 2500 for two adults and two children living in Israel.

There’s no way you can live on NIS 2500 for a month. What about rent?

Ah, so let’s take a minute to talk about what’s included and what isn’t.

What’s not included in our monthly allotment:

• Rent, utilities and property tax (in Israel, renters pay property tax on the apartment)
• Health care, prescriptions if we need them, etc.
• Business expenses
• Transportation to and from school/work other than our car
• Giving to charity

What is included:

• Groceries and meals out
• Gas for the car
• Clothing
• Stuff – household items, cleaning supplies, the usual stuff
• Entertainment

The plan should be pretty clear – spend the money on food, don’t buy any new clothes or household stuff and maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll have a little money left over for entertainment.

See you next Tuesday!

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