Erin, Steph, Marla Jan and I would like to introduce the January Spending Freeze!
It's a make your own rules kind of challenge, since everyone has their own financial preferences. We'd love for you to join!
Personally, I'm going to take my small bi-weekly allowance and put that towards debt instead. By month's end, that will make a dent of $180. It's not a lot but it's better than spending it on stuff I don't need. This also means keeping my credit card in hiding with no exceptions!
I'll keep my grocery budget, but no fast food stops or Chipotle run. No online shopping. No expensive nights out at the bars. It's time to make debt a big priority and have my actions reflect that.
I even plan on extending this challenge to be every other month for all of 2014. That will knock out $1020 of debt, which is pretty cool!
Now, it's easy to debate what is a necessity and what's not. And that's why I like this challenge being completely up to you. Maybe for you it means cutting your cable or gym membership. Maybe it means cutting back on your groceries, gas, spending money.
One addition to the challenge would be to call the companies you use and see if you can lower your rates or payments. Maybe you can get a lower phone or internet bill. Maybe you can lower the interest rates on your credit cards or student loans. It never hurts to ask!
Everyone has their own motivation when it comes to their finances. Mine is to pay off debt asap. But maybe you want to build your savings or pay for a family vacation this year. I'd love to hear what your motivation is!
We'll be hosting a link up on February 4th to recap how this challenge went so grab a button and get ready to freeze!
Awesome! I am planning to do a spending freeze the first month of every quarter and will do a resulting link up. I can't wait to see how it goes for you!
ReplyDeleteI lowered my Comcast bill last year by $80 a month without cutting services. It cannot hurt to ask!!
One of my goals in the first quarter is to use what's in my pantry before I load it up again. I have so much.
I am seriously so excited that we're all joining in on this!!! We look to cut back on bills and rates any way we can.... We cut cable completely, and reduced our cell phone minutes last year which saved us lots! We also have every single bill set up for auto-debit now, and for student loans that reduced our interest rate! YAY!
ReplyDeleteI accept this challenge!
ReplyDeleteI did something similar in September and it was GREAT!! Need to do it again.
ReplyDeleteFound your blog through Erin @ LFF... I have big goals for 2014 as well and my finances are at the top of the list! Love that you're so focused on it as well and I can't wait to hear about your progress!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good goal. Good luck. I've been unemployed since we've had to move again so most months for me are a spending freeze lol.
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