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!

I didn’t attend ulpan for a multitude of reasons, though learning fluent Hebrew is still very much so in my long-term plan, but I’ve done my best to learn enough, read what I can and get by in Hebrew.

The grocery store offers hundreds of ways to improve, whether it’s figuring out why you didn’t get the sale price that was marked or understanding that economica has nothing to do with financial markets or supply and demand.

A lot of my working vocabulary has come from the products we buy, but it has its pros and cons.

For the life of me, I just couldn’t understand why someone would name their daughter Barley. Now Hebrew has some quirky names for things that appear in nature.

I know a beautiful Lilach. And our sweet neighbor, her friend, is a very kind Gefen. But really? Barley?

But sure enough, I know a lot of lovely people named Penina, and it’s right there on the package. Pearl barley is גריסי פנינה.

Oh. Right. It took me until this week to work out that the גריסי part means barley.

In other news, Penina, or pearl, is a lovely name for a girl, don’t you think?

Since upgrading to Windows 7, my iTunes has been a bit buggy. As a result, I’m relying more on streaming music sites. Today, I tapped into Grooveshark and started playing everything from ABBA.

The following happened:

Husband: Hey, where’s the music from?

Me: Grooveshark.

Husband: What’s that?

Me: A streaming music site.

Husband: Is that legal?

Me: You mean making someone listen to ABBA for eight hours straight? I’m not sure.

Rachel has a great post this week about how you can live on roughly $30K in Belize. She somewhat jokingly added that she and the family are considering the move.

Since a fair share of my readers made the big leap to living in Israel, I’m hoping you can help me craft a post with your tips. What did you learn from your move? What advice would you give others? Whether it’s specific to Israel (bring Ziploc bags) or general (save your small appliances and buy a transformer), I’d love it if you could post them in the comments. If you have a blog of your own and would rather post there, please post a link in the comments so we can all learn from one another.

Thanks again!

First, let me say that meal planning is the last thing I thought I would ever be doing. Three years ago when we moved to Israel, we were a young couple with no kids. For a long time, my husband and I worked opposite shifts – nearly five years of marriage were spent with him working 7-3 as a teacher and me working 3-midnight as a page designer and web geek at newspapers. Although food was still home made, it was neatly boxed up into tupperware containers and available for your microwaving pleasure. We didn’t unbox a fair share of our dishware until we moved to Israel – because we rarely ate off of plates.

Wow, what a difference a few years can make.

Life has a routine, if not a set-in-stone schedule now. And that routine means daycare pickup at 4 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m., bathtime at 7 and bedtime by 8. Somewhere in there, with a toddler and a newborn, dinner has to get made. Admittedly, it’s a bit easier now with my husband (a Ph.D. student) home for summer break, but we’re building some good habits to keep things running smoothly in the fall.

Habit #1: A meal plan.

Meal planning seems a bit strange to me since I love cooking. But very little cooking seems to get done when there isn’t a plan in place. There’s not enough Parmesan cheese for pesto, the veggies went bad in the crisper when no one was looking and we could have chicken – if only we had taken it out of the freezer a day or two before. The dinner rush can be such a mess.

In hopes of improving things, I’m taking a few ideas from Simple Mom by way of Small Notebook – especially the part about using a Google Calendar to keep everything organized. You can follow along to see what we’re having here.

Our plan thus far is to cook a little extra on Sunday and Monday (our work week here is Sunday-Thursday) to have leftovers on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday night will be breakfast for dinner – American breakfast one week, Israeli breakfast the next. Shabbat is brisket one week (with leftovers on Saturday lunch) and chicken the next with a variety of easy side dishes.

We’re four days into our first week and … at the risk of sounding crazy dramatic … it might be the single greatest thing I’ve ever done to simplify my life at home. Dinner is ready to go at 6 every night – no delays. Dishes are minimal since we’re cooking once and eating at least twice from the same meal. The stress levels have plummeted.

But the biggest kicker is that we aren’t eating out. I’m genuinely looking forward to what’s planned for the next few days and I feel no desire. To. Eat. Out. Period.

It never occurred to me that my frequent desires to visit the mall and dine out had very little to do with a desire for what was on the menu. Instead, it appears to have been mostly avoidance of the “what to make for dinner” issue.

How, I ask you, did we not try this earlier? I’m gob smacked at the difference it makes. Food gets eaten. Leftovers get eaten. Ingredients get used during their prime. Everybody’s happy. And our food budget is getting accordingly lower since we’re eating at home.

It’s a little early to celebrate, but I think this might just be a huge problem solved.

Thanks to Simple Mom and Small Notebook for the great advice. It’s just one tip that makes a huge difference.

And now, the Q&A:

You went on a spending diet. Why?

As our income has increased, our spending has increased dramatically with it. In short, we’re making too much money not to be saving more. We would like to buy a home in the next year, so a little belt tightening will make the difference between renting for another year or having a sizable down payment.

What’s included in your allotment?

What I like to think of as judgment spending – groceries, furnishings, clothing, dining out, entertainment, and anything else that isn’t non-negotiable.

What isn’t included: rent and other utilities (though we are also trying to be a bit more careful on the utilities and other flexible expenses), business expenses, medical expenses, charity, and transportation.

You actually spent a lot of money on things that one would think you wouldn’t, like NIS17 for iced coffee.

Yes – and it was money well spent. We also had a meal out to eat as a family, and I wouldn’t change that. Frugal shouldn’t be a synonym for miserly.

Did you starve?

Not at all. The reality is that NIS 1000 can probably go a long way toward supporting a family of four (admittedly, the two kids are very little right now) for a month. Meat and poultry are expensive. We spend a lot on milk – we go through 6-8 liters a week. But the vast majority of our other food items can be had for very little. Cakes can be made from scratch (indeed, it’s the only way they get made in this house – trust fund or not). Most of us aren’t going broke on buying fruits and vegetables (though I came close with the watermelon). It’s the processed junk, cleaning products, prepared foods, and toiletries that get us when we’re at the supermarket. That’s what we try and keep an eye on.

Did you actually only spend NIS1000?

Nope – we were attacked by children’s sandals. We finished at NIS 1543.

How did your friends react when you told them you were going to try this? Family?

We didn’t prepare anyone in advance, but we got a lot of positive reactions. Some people thought maybe times were tough. But most people agreed it was a good idea – some even suggested they would give it a shot.

What have blog reactions been?

Interesting to say the least. The funniest thing I noticed is that people would email me or contact me in Facebook, but were leery to comment publicly. Money is still too taboo to discuss. I was also amazed at how many notes I got saying “I’d love to do this but my spouse isn’t on board with it.” Especially when I got that note from both spouses in a couple.

Are you going to do this every month?

No. But I think once or twice a year might be beneficial.

Thanks again for all your comments, emails and feedback! Let me know if I’ve inspired you to give it a shot.

I forgot that I was about to get hammered at work with a ton of new projects. This time of the year is crazy busy for me since it’s when most of my major clients go on vacation. They leave, and leave the work to me. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining! I’m very glad to have it.

When I last left you, we were at the end of No-Spend Month. The final tally?

We spent NIS 1543 – well above our goal of NIS 1000, but still dramatically less than we spend every month. Our grocery bill alone is usually well above NIS 1500.

When I wasn’t looking, my daughter’s feet attacked our budget.

She outgrew her sandals. We live in Israel. We live in sandals.

Have I mentioned how insane the cost of kids shoes are?

I’m a bit ridiculous when it comes to buying for my kids. I like to get nice stuff, but rarely buy anything that isn’t on sale. Even when we aren’t trying to stick to a budget, I just can’t handle paying NIS 80 for a sweater and seeing it on sale for NIS 20 two weeks later. With the added fact that kids clothes seem to follow the same ridiculous seasons (it’s in the upper 90s here right now and I saw the first snowsuit at Fox today), I see no point in buying at full price when I can either a) buy a year ahead when the previous season goes on clearance and stockpile or b) buy mid-season and get them on clearance.

As a result, I have clothing through size 5 for my daughter, who turns two on Sept. 3. Admittedly, she is the height of a 3-4 year old, so a lot of her clothes are sized much larger. For shoes, I buy only even sizes and started at 22 – sandals at 22, sneakers and sandals at 24, sneakers and sandals at 26, etc. In short, I buy many months ahead when there are good sales and always buy from the same store to take advantage of the club card.

I just dropped the ball on this one.

And so we went shoe shopping. It was a much better deal to buy two pair (25% off the first pair, 50% off the second) than just buy one, so we broke our budget to do it. It was still a good deal (NIS 220 for a pair of sandals and a pair of tennis shoes), but we hadn’t planned for it. That and a few other odds and ends pushed us over our limit.

I’m not complaining. Indeed, buying that day, we signed up for the club card. The card got us another NIS 50 off in every month where someone in our family has a birthday (Aug., Sept. Jan. and April) and another NIS 50 off of a purchase in the next 90 days. We made a return trip about a week ago and got two pair of sandals (including one for our little man – he’s only 4 months old right now, but he’ll need them eventually) and a pair of tennis shoes for him too. We also got six pair of socks free using our customer card points. Total spent – NIS 250. Total without sales, discount card, etc. – NIS 680. Mission accomplished. We saved about NIS 400. That’s more than $100.

Today, we also got Abby a pair of Crocs – on sale for NIS 100, paid for half with Leumi card points, total spent NIS 50. Chalk one up for the good guys. I’m heading back tomorrow to stock up on Crocs for the whole family.

And on that note, it’s back to a more frugal, but regular, life.

Perhaps jumped off the back of the wagon and ran the other way might be more accurate. Like an Oregon Trail leader on bare bones rations. Okay, I’m probably exaggerating a little bit.

While I’m going to save our final accounting for my next post, I wanted to give you a preview of things to come.

Items of note that you can eagerly anticipate:

• My dear daughter needed new shoes. Have I ranted yet about how expensive kids’ shoes are? Don’t worry, it’s coming.
• The siren song of the mall finally won – a couple times. Darn you, Azrieli.
• The store that stole my yogurt money has mischarged me a total of NIS 86 this month – and yes, I’ve fought to get all of it back and have won. In Hebrew. For which I deserve an award. In other news, I’m going to avoid shopping there like the plague going forward.
• I have no self restraint when it comes to watermelon.

Our final tally is coming on Thursday, July 1. You can also join me on Thursday when I’m interviewed on Rusty Mike Radio (click the “Listen Live” button) by Nettie Feldman on Afternoon Schmooze – the program airs from noon to 2 p.m. and I’m expected to be on around 1:20 p.m. Israel time. Topics to be covered:

• You went on a spending diet. Why?
• What’s included in your allotment?
• You actually spent a lot of money on things that one would think you wouldn’t, like NIS17 for iced coffee.
• Did you starve?
• Did you actually only spend NIS1000?
• How did your friends react when you told them you were going to try this? Family?
• What have blog reactions been?
• Are you going to do this every month?

Hope to see you later this week!

When we last met, we had spent NIS 270 of our allotted NIS 1000. We were doing quite well.

You might recall that I mentioned in a previous post that we had a couple chickens and a brisket in our freezer. Funny how we didn’t actually have any meat in our freezer. Or chickens. And this is where the tale begins to go downhill.

First, let’s do the tally.

I’m not counting NIS 86 that was spent on lunch out on June 8. My husband and I forgot our anniversary, remembered, and decided to enjoy a meal out. As allowed by the rules at Small Notebook, I’m accepting that this isn’t the usual sort of spending and that one exception out of a month for a celebration is acceptable. Happy seventh anniversary!

I also got my NIS 16 from my overcharged yogurt back. Small victories.

So, what did we buy?

We were asked to host someone last weekend for Shabbat and were happy to have a guest. We also invited another guest – as we have two children under the age of two, the likelihood was that we would both be called away from the table during lunch at one point or another to take care of the kids. In our absence, at least they’d have each other.

That said, guests mean more food – two chickens instead of one, for example – we spent NIS 209 getting the week’s groceries, challot and chickens for Shabbat. It was worth every shekel and we had a really lovely lunch with wonderful discussion.

Another funny thing happened as it neared mid-June in Israel. It got really hot. Our daughter was in pretty desperate need of shorts, and we found some really cute inexpensive ones – five pair for NIS 100. Bonus – a one-piece outfit for her little brother for another NIS 5.

While we made it through the weekend, Sunday meant a relatively empty fridge. It was time for a good grocery shop – and as I had a rental car for a business meeting, it meant going to the big less expensive supermarket on the outskirts of town. While I’m really dedicated to sticking to a budget this month, I’m not willing to pass up the fact that food is significantly less expensive at the big market – Supersol Deal – than it is in town. Some examples:

• Watermelons were NIS 2 a kilo instead of NIS 2.5-4
• Whole chickens were NIS 10 a kilo
• Ground beef was NIS 35 a kilo instead of NIS 45

We bought a lot and blew our budget, but we also saved a lot. Total spent – NIS 633, but it bought enough meat to last about six weeks. While not sticking strictly to our spending limit, it is certainly in the spirit of our challenge. We didn’t buy processed foods – just a wealth of good, tasty, wholesome foods that will keep up well fed for a while.

In short, had we not stocked up on the deals when we did, we could have likely kept the bill to a range that would have kept us under NIS 1000 for the whole month. As it is, I’ll be pleased as punch if we can keep it to NIS 1500 or so.

Finally, two other expenses:

• The little filter thingee at the end of our kitchen sink faucet went kablooey and needed to be replaced. We could probably bill our landlord for it, but won’t – his good graces are worth much more than the NIS 33 it cost to replace it.
• The husband needed deodorant. It’s hot here. This is not an optional item. Fortunately, it was buy-one-get-one at SuperPharm. NIS 28 for two.

Where does that leave us on June 16? NIS 1257 and we have almost half a month left. This is going to be interesting.

What more have we learned? It might take us more than NIS 1000 every month to live, but it’s still a lot less than what we were spending in any given month. At least now we’ll have a reasonable starting point from which to set the budget.

Having such a tight budget is changing the way I shop for things, but not as you might expect. We aren’t having to do without anything, so that’s not an issue. Instead, a lot of care is going into only buying what we’re actually going to eat.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but we generally stink at eating everything we buy. We’re umpteen times better about it than we were a few years ago when we didn’t have kids, but a lot still goes to waste. Half a serving of pasta – because, really, at NIS 9 for a massive box of pasta, I can’t be bothered to worry about it. And when cucumbers are NIS 2 a kilo – about 20 cents a pound – I never fussed over throwing out half of what we bought because it amounted to almost nothing. A few shekels here, a few there – who has the time to worry about it?

Well, now I fuss and worry. Now, I’m bothered.

It’s not that things are more expensive or that we’re desperately strapped for cash – we’re actually doing really well at sticking to bare-bones spending. It’s just that throwing away NIS 5 worth of produce means throwing away enough to get an extra yogurt or a coffee from Cafe Neeman. Tossing a liter of milk that’s missed its use-by date always bothers me, but it bothers me a lot more when its cost means we went without something else. So I’m buying more diligently now – and there are pros and cons to that.

The pros are wonderful – instead of buying a handful of baguettes that we may or may not get around to eating, I’m buying as we go along so that nothing goes to waste and they’re so much fresher and tastier this way. The same is true for veggies and fruits. I’m spending more time checking that nothing is bruised or buggy since I don’t want to throw anything out. As a result, everything is really the best I can find and it really makes a difference. Of course, it also helps that nothing is lingering in the fridge – the leftovers are getting eaten, even when it’s chopped salad from the night before. And there’s less random filling of the cart – if it’s not getting eaten this month, it’s not getting purchase. Finally, I’m keeping an eye on the receipts. I’ve been to the store three times in the last week (ack – more on that next) and have been mischarged TWICE in three visits. I’m still going to fight the good fight to get my yogurt money back as it amounts to almost NIS 25. It makes me wonder how much more we’ve been overcharged when we haven’t been as diligent about checking our receipts.

And not to whine, but there are a few cons to this. Three grocery visits in seven days (and this is Israel, so the stores aren’t even open on Saturday) means that I’m spending a lot of time to ensure we get good deals and tasty food on the table. But my time normally comes at a price – as a small business owner, I cannot afford to spend this much time shopping for and preparing food. The only reason it works right now is that I’m on maternity leave (sort of).

I mean this in a positive way – when you’re a mother to a toddler and a newborn and you’re also employed full time (whether in or out of the house), something has got to give. For us, it’s usually meals – we don’t really spend anything on any other forms of entertainment, but we do like to eat out. Of course, if I dedicated myself to improving my skills a bit, I am certain I would be able to bring down the amount of time I’m spending preparing meals, shopping, meal planning and the like. It’s an acquired skill like any other – one I have apparently failed to acquire thus far.

Another thing I’ve learned – it matter less how much money I spend than whom I get to spend it with. Today, I popped my littlest one in the stroller and picked up my big girl at daycare and we headed for the grocery store. We didn’t get much, but we had a great time eating grapes in the park while the baby rested in the shade on a blanket (it was HOT here today). We had a lot of fun relaxing and snacking and then came home to pasta dinner with fresh bread and salad. We had stove-popped popcorn as dessert and a good time was had by all – on the cheap.

And lastly, a tally update:

NIS 31 spent at the grocery store on:

• 3% milk – NIS 9.5
• Yellow peppers – NIS 2
• Red peppers – NIS 2
• Zucchini – NIS 4.8
• Grapes – NIS 7.27
• Baguettes – NIS 6

For a grand total of NIS 271.59 spent thus far.